Tired Guardians shut out by Angels to begin homestand

CLEVELAND — The Guardians looked like a tired bunch. Coming off a road trip that included four straight extra-inning games will do that to a team. Generating only six hits, Cleveland fell 6-0 in the series opener against the Los Angeles Angels at Progressive Field on Friday night to account for its fourth loss in five games. Manager Stephen Vogt said his team was flat after an 8-2 loss to the Astros on Thursday night, and nothing changed a day later in the Guardians' third shutout defeat of the season. Last-place Los Angeles won for just the third time in 14 games, notching only its third win in 26 games in Cleveland since 2015. "We're going to play every day and you're going to win, you're going to lose," Vogt said. "And sometimes it hurts more than others and you never want to lose, but you're going to at times and it's frustrating. "We're going to work to get back on track (Saturday) and that's what we do every day. It's all about each day, individually. We are going to process tonight, come up with a plan for (Saturday) and get back after it. And that's the only way we can keep going forward." Right-hander Tanner Bibee was coming off his best outing of the season Saturday — seven scoreless innings, two hits and nine strikeouts — in a 4-2 win over the National League-leading Atlanta Braves in 11 innings. He wasn't nearly as efficient in his seventh start of the season. Bibee threw just over 40 pitches in the first two innings and failed to make it into the sixth, allowing six runs. He surrendered homers to Angels leadoff hitter Nolan Schanuel for the game's first run in the third and a three-run blast to Mickey Moniak that put them in front 5-0 an inning later. Schanuel went 3-for-4 and reached base four times, beginning the game with a lengthy at-bat. "I think that 11-pitch at-bat to start the game really put a dent in his night," Vogt said. "He made some big pitches when he needed to at times, but fastball command was a little off. He never really got a feel for his slider as the night went on, pulling his fastball just a little bit. "It was just kind of an off night and I really do think that was a great first at-bat by Schanuel, and I think that really kind of dictated the night." "Not having the slider where I wanted it to be made things extremely tough, especially to the righties," Bibee said. "And I just made stupid pitches in stupid spots." Cleveland hitters put up little fight against Angels right-hander Jose Soriano, who went six scoreless innings and allowed only five hits — two over the first four innings. The Guardians threatened only once against Soriano, loading the bases on singles from Bo Naylor and Gabriel Arias and a two-out walk from Steven Kwan. But Andres Gimenez, who entered the night leading the American League with a .483 average (14-for-29) with runners in scoring position, struck out swinging on three pitches. "He's throwing nasty stuff up there," Vogt said of Soriano. "I mean, 95 mph splits and his fastball has a ton of sink to it. Even at 97-100, it is tough to get under that. We did, we hit a lot of balls hard tonight, some on the ground. I think Josey (Ramirez) had 300-something mph of outs. "So we did hit the ball hard at times. Just couldn't string anything together. But that guy's got plus-plus stuff. He threw a really good game tonight." Kwan went another game without striking out, extending his streak to 71 plate appearances without a whiff. It is the longest such streak since Omar Vizquel's 76 in 1996. Kwan, who leads the AL with 47 hits, recorded his 14th multihit game of the season. "He means everything to us," Vogt said. "He's our catalyst and what he's doing right now is pretty special, and the guys behind him are doing a lot of special things as well. But you can't say enough about what he's doing, the consistency that he brings to our lineup." Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on Twitter.