Zach

Neto

Things got even worse late in the game, as Neto got banged up on a diving play at shortstop. He was able to stay in the game, though. Neto came into the night 4-for-7 with two homers in the series against Texas. It was his second four-strikeout game of the year.

Neto homered off Jacob deGrom to open the bottom of the first and later added a 427-footer off Chris Martin in the eighth. He’s on pace for 31 homers and 106 RBI now that he’s returned to the leadoff spot after a brief, ill-planned hiatus in Anaheim.

The Angels had only two hits and three baserunners in this game, but after Adam Frazier book up J.T. Ginn’s no-hitter to begin the ninth, Neto socked the game winner to center to give the Angels the win. It’s the eighth homer of the season for Neto, and he’s driven in 22 runs over the first 48 games of the campaign.

Batting Neto sixth certainly wasn’t the difference between winning and losing a 6-0 game tonight, but this is still some nonsense from novice manager Kurt Suzuki. At .343, Neto is second on the Angels in OBP. He ought to be hitting ahead of Mike Trout and not Josh Lowe.

Perhaps Neto shouldn’t be leading off for the Angels, though he has greatly improved his walk rate this year; he currently has a .330 OBP in spite of a .224 average. But he definitely shouldn’t be batting sixth and probably won’t be for long. He entered today on pace to score 105 runs as the Angels’ leadoff man.

The Guardians are throwing a left-handed pitcher, so Nolan Schanuel will be on the bench, but Zach Neto is also being dropped from the leadoff spot to sixth in the order. Neto is hitting .167/.265/.310 in 11 games since the start of May with a 31 percent strikeout rate, but Grissom is also hitting .188/.257/.344 in 10 games in May with an 11.4 percent strikeout rate. Grissom has been the hotter hitter in the most recent games, going 4-for-13 over the last three games with one home runs, one double, and four RBI. It remains to be seen if this is a consistent change the Angels make because that would put Grissom on the radar in deeper formats.

Neto was in a serious slump, going hitless in his last five games. His home run drought extends back to April 10. He first broke the hitless streak with a single in the third inning, then took Erick Fedde deep for a solo homer in the fifth. The 25-year-old shortstop is up to six with 24 runs scored and seven steals while slashing .218/.327/.395 across 171 plate appearances.

Neto’s recent struggles have flown a bit under the radar as he’s batting just .220 (13-for-59) with zero homers, six RBI and six steals over his last 15 games. The 25-year-old fantasy standout’s power outage has surpassed three weeks as he hasn’t homered since April 10. There isn’t a clear explanation for his downward trajectory, besides an elevated strikeout rate, which means it’s possible he’ll turn things around at any moment.

Neto led off the third inning with a base hit and scored the Angels’ first run on a groundout. He then drew a walk and scored again in the fourth before knocking a double in the sixth to reach for a third time. The 25-year-old shortstop is having a solid start to the season, hitting .262/.357/.557 with five homers, 14 runs scored, eight RBI, and one steal over 70 plate appearances.

Neto has now hit safely in six-straight games and has homered three times over that span. The 25-year-old shortstop blasted his fifth homer of the season in the fourth inning to push the Angels’ lead to 4-0 in what ended up being a blowout win over the Reds on Friday. Neto continues to be a solid fantasy option for as long as this power surge continues and should benefit from two more games at Great American Ballpark.