Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Ben Lively earned his first win of the season over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, allowing one run on four hits and three walks while striking out five batters over six innings.
However, Angels manager Ron Washington wasn't impressed.
“I didn’t think (Lively’s stuff) was that good,” Washington said. “But he was able to make some pitches when he had to. He shot some fastballs inside on us. He threw some good changeups. He was able to minimize any damage that we could do.”
Los Angeles could only muster four hits in the six innings Lively pitched. They failed to score Willie Calhoun after he led off with a double in the second and didn’t get anything else going until a two-out rally in the fifth. Three walks and a Zach Neto single produced one run, but Ehire Adrianza hit a fly ball to the warning track to leave the bases loaded.
Reid Detmers' poor start didn't help the Angels' case either. He gave up three runs in the first five innings on a pair of homers.
The sixth inning blew up on him. He walked the first two batters then struck out the next two. Detmers walked Tyler Freeman to load the bases and Bo Naylor came to the plate hitting .175, including 1-for-12 with eight strikeouts against lefties.
He hung a curveball “right in his honey hole,” Detmers said, and Naylor blasted a grand slam.
“It’s frustrating,” Detmers said of his performance. “I don’t know. It just comes down to execution. That’s baseball. You have to live and learn. We’re going to get over this, going to get past it. Just have to take it start by start. I’m looking forward to next week, a new challenge. We’ll figure it out in the bullpen and go from there. It obviously hurts. Move on to next week.”
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