There is a special place in Hell for a team that wastes a Josh Naylor home run off a left-handed pitcher, but this Cleveland Guardians squad has spent the first 37 games of this season getting acquainted with the various rungs of Hell. Game 38 only continued their descent.
The stars seemed to align in the eighth inning, when Naylor broke a 3-3 tie with a solo shot off left-handed reliever Matt Moore, who hadn’t given up a home run through his first 18 innings of work this season. But not even Emmanuel Clase routinely touching 100 mph on his fastball could save the Guardians from themselves in their 5-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.