mlb

Naylor hits grand slam, leads Guardians over Angels

Bo Naylor's grand slam was the difference as the Guardians pulled out a 7-1 victory over the Angels in Cleveland at Progressive Field.

Angels left-hander Reid Detmers started on Saturday but couldn’t stop the Cleveland Guardians. Bo Naylor made sure of that.

Naylor hit a grand slam in the sixth inning, lifting Cleveland to a 7-1 victory over Los Angeles on Saturday night at Progressive Field.

Detmers pitched for 5 2/3 innings, allowing five hits, seven earned runs, four walks and seven strikeouts on 95 pitches.

Cleveland’s right-hander Ben Lively pitched six strong innings, allowing only one run and striking out five, earning his first win of the season. He threw 85 pitches and was in control throughout the game.

The Angels left the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning, trailing 3-1 after Ehire Adrianza flied out to center with bases loaded.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Angels struggle vs. Lively

The Angels couldn’t get rolling against 32-year old Lively. He struck out the side to open the game in the bottom of the first and was in complete control of his sweeper, which kept the Angels off-balance.

Lively (1-1) has a 2.08 ERA in his fourth big-league start, having been drafted by Cleveland in 2010 and making his debut 14 years later.

Angels outfielder Joe Adell has been struggling at the plate, going 0 for 10 before he hit a single in the fifth. Zach Neto was facing a similar challenge, having gone 0 for 5 in the series until he hit a single that drove home Adell.

Angels manager Ron Washington tried to be more aggressive in his strategy against Lively — he called a successful double steal in the fifth — but little else worked.

The first two players in the Angels lineup (Nolan Schaunuel and Ehire Adrianza) were struggling, going 0 for 7 and a walk. Overall, the Angels mustered four hits.

Detmers allows seven runs

Detmers (3-3) struggled to control his slider. He made several mistakes — including allowing three home runs — that the Guardians took advantage of and raised his ERA to 4.24.

Austin Hedges, who is hitting .111, hit a two-run home run to the left field, giving the Guardians the first lead of the series in the second inning.

In the fifth, Ramon Laureano hit a solo home run to left field. Laureano had been struggling with a batting average of .151 in the season, and this was his first home run.

The Guardians already had control of the game when Naylor hit his grand slam, Despite hitting .179 this season, Naylor was one of Detmer’s big mistakes.

Washington’s frustration increases

Washington expressed more concern about his players’ attention to detail.

“I saw him trying to make some pitches, the ground ball that they hit up the middle that Neto got, we couldn’t get the double play,” Angels’ Washington said. “We told him (Detmers) to make sure he was careful with (Tyler) Freeman, because we knew Naylor was coming behind him and he just left him a breaking ball over the plate and he didn’t miss it.”

The Angels are facing a string of injuries as their catcher Logan O’Hoppe left the game in the bottom of the fourth. He was replaced by Matt Thaiss after getting by a foul ball on the right hand.

“He’s got a contusion,” Washington said. “As of right now, the X-rays didn’t show anything was broken.

“I had him off tomorrow anyway, so he’ll get another day of rest but he took it pretty good off his hand.”

Cleveland’s Steven Kwan left the game in the third inning because of left hamstring tightness. Kwan, who leads the AL with a .353 batting average, was replaced by Bradley Zimmer.

Angels second baseman Luis Rengifo was sidelined because of illness. Rengifo has the fourth-highest AL batting average (.330) and is tied for second in stolen bases (9).