CLEVELAND — Zach Neto fielded the ground ball cleanly, pounded his glove, took a step and then fired to first base.
When Toronto Blue Jays speedster Daulton Varsho beat the throw in the first inning on Sunday, he was credited with an infield hit. A day later, Neto admitted it was a mental mistake, one of too many that he’s made lately.
“It wasn’t trouble with the grip,” the Angels’ shortstop said. “It was just a mental thing. I thought I had time to gather my feet and throw the ball, and I didn’t.”
The play ended up costing starter José Soriano the only run he allowed, plus an extra 14 pitches to get out of the first inning.
“Those are the things that I’ve been talking about since the beginning of the year,” Neto said, “just things you’ve got to experience to learn about. That’s one that I wish I had back. But I can’t do anything about it now but learn from it and be better.”
Neto, 25, is clearly the Angels’ best young player. He’s the leadoff hitter. He has played every inning of the season at shortstop.
Offensively, he’s been inconsistent, hitting .222 with six home runs and a .729 OPS. A recent five-game hitting streak has helped stabilize his offense after a weeks-long slump at the plate.
Defensively, though, he acknowledges there have been too many mistakes. He’s already made six errors, more than half of the 11 he had all of last season.
The play on Sunday wasn’t an error. It was a mental mistake.
“There’s some things I need to clean up,” Neto said. “There’s some mental stuff on the field. This game’s very hard, so if I keep just knocking out one thing at a time. I hopefully got the hitting part down part now and I’m feeling way more comfortable and dangerous in the box. Now I’m focusing on my stuff to try and get out of these innings for these pitchers and making the plays for them. I feel like I’m catching the ball, but not finishing the play. That’s half of it. I need to be able to finish, especially playing shortstop every single day. I need to be a leader out there and making those plays.”
Andy Schatzley, the Angels’ infield coach, said Neto is always working to get through these kind of issues.
“I think it’s a constant process,” Schatzley said. “He’s an elite player that has an elite future. It’s such a long season. There are going to be ebbs and flows. It’s not any different right now than it is at any point. He’s trying to get better every day. He’s trying to be the best version of himself. Regardless of what the results have been, we know that’s where his mindset is and where it will continue to be.”
Neto’s issues caused Angels television analyst Bobby Valentine to make a harsh assessment on the pregame show last week.
“Attitude filters down from the top, and he’s at the top of the lineup,” Valentine said. “He has a great attitude when he’s playing like Zach Neto and his head was not on his shoulders for the last five months, it was somewhere else.”
Valentine suggested that, after Neto got picked off first last Wednesday, that was a wake-up call for him, and it improved his attitude.
“Hopefully it’s in the right place to stay,” Valentine said.
Asked about those comments on Monday, Neto said: “That’s just Bobby’s opinion. It’s cool hearing him, seeing how much care he has for me. And I didn’t take it as no diss or anything. I just see how much care he has for me as a person and as a player. I just gotta be better. And I know that, and he knows that, and all the Angels fans know that, my teammates know that. I just gotta keep being myself. I’m starting to feel like myself again and it’s just a matter of, just a matter of time before I start breaking out of here soon and we’re gonna start winning some ballgames.”
JOYCE UPDATE
Right-hander Ben Joyce was scratched from his scheduled outing in a minor league game on Sunday because “he wasn’t recovering as fast as we wanted,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said on Monday.
Suzuki said he’s “not concerned at all” about Joyce’s rehab, despite the slowdown. Joyce underwent shoulder surgery almost exactly one year ago. Suzuki said Joyce continues to do other rehab activities to keep his arm loose.
“We’ll take it after these couple days and see how he feels,” Suzuki said. “We’re not stopping his rehab. It’s just that he needed a couple days, felt like he wasn’t recovering.”
NOTES
Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez reported to the Angels that he “felt really good, ready to go,” after Sunday’s outing for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga. “We’ll see what the next plans are,” Suzuki said. …
The Angels entered the series in Cleveland with a 4-26 record at Progressive Field since 2015.
UP NEXT
Angels (RHP Walbert Ureña, 1-3, 3.22 ERA) at Guardians (RHP Slade Cecconi, 2-4, 6.15 ERA ERA), Tuesday, 3:10 p.m., ABTV, 830 AM