CLEVELAND — Game after game, the Angels are leaving themselves no margin for error.
The hitters wasted opportunities all night in a 3-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night.
It was the 13th time in their last 22 games that they have scored two runs or fewer, a stretch of games in which they’ve gone 5-17.
The anemic offensive performance made a loser of Walbert Ureña on a night when he gave up just two runs. An error by third baseman Oswald Peraza led to an unearned run against reliever Drew Pomeranz in the seventh, and that turned out to be the difference in the game.
The Angels (16-27) were hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position, including four of their 12 strikeouts. They left 10 runners on base.
The most frustrating moments came in the seventh inning, after Zach Neto and Mike Trout had drawn back-to-back one-out walks. With the tying run in scoring position, Nolan Schanuel struck out on three pitches. Jorge Soler then got ahead, 3-and-1, before he also struck out swinging at a pitch out of the zone.
The Angels also had two on and one out in the first inning, two on and two outs in the third and a runner at second with one out in the fifth.
The Angels scored single runs in the sixth and eighth. Peraza tripled down the right-field line as a pinch-hitter for Yoán Moncada in the sixth. He scored on a Jo Adell sacrifice fly.
Vaughn Grissom hit a homer in the eighth, his second of the season, to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Ureña had another solid game, allowing two runs in five innings. He has a 3.51 ERA in five starts and has allowed more than two runs only once.
On Tuesday night he gave up a solo homer to Angel Martinez in the third inning. In the fifth, he clearly started to lose some command. He walked Daniel Schneemann, who went to second on a wild pitch. Martinez then nearly hit another homer, but right fielder Jo Adell robbed it. Schneemann still went to third on the fly ball, and he scored on a ground ball, giving the Guardians a run without a hit.
More to come on this story.