Pair of crooked innings sink Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Left-hander Reid Detmers pitched about five solid innings on Tuesday night, but the problem is the one lousy inning that spoiled it all. 

Detmers only allowed two runs on one hit and two walks in five out of the six innings he pitched in, and collected eight strikeouts, but he allowed six runs on seven hits in the third inning alone. That, paired with another blowup inning in the eighth, ultimately led the Angels to their demise.

The Angels lost 14-6 against the Athletics.

Things couldn’t have started any better for Detmers, as he struck out five of the six batters he faced to get through two innings of work. But after getting the leadoff man out, the wheels fell off. 

He allowed back-to-back singles before getting a flyout for the second out. Then, with two outs, the Athletics strung together five consecutive hits to put up the six runs. 

 “I left a couple of pitches over the plate,” Detmers said. “A lot of soft contact. It's kind of been the story of the year so far.”

And it wasn’t like a specific pitch was getting punished. Detmers allowed three of those hits on sliders, two of them on fastballs and two of them on changeups.

“They strung together a bunch of hits with two outs,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I felt like maybe some of those pitches were a little up in the zone, off-speed pitches up in the zone. They kind of snuck it over the infield and hit it in front of the outfielders. But for the most part, I think he minimized hard contact.”

After the disaster inning, Detmers settled in. 

He followed with a 10-pitch one-two-three inning in the fourth to get back on track, and then pitched another scoreless inning in the fifth. Detmers ran into trouble again in the sixth, though, as he got two outs but allowed a single and a walk to make Suzuki go to the bullpen.

“I think he kept some of the off-speed stuff down,” Suzuki said of Detmers’ adjustment. “It's hard to tell from the side of the corners and stuff. It looked like he was executing some better pitches on the corners.”

Right-hander Jose Fermin relieved Detmers but allowed a walk on a pitch-timer violation and a single to score the two baserunners Detmers allowed.

Detmers’ final line came out to five and two-thirds innings of work with eight runs allowed on eight hits and one walk with eight strikeouts.

In the eighth inning, right-hander Ryan Johnson got hit hard and allowed four runs to score on a walk and three hits. First baseman Nick Kurtz hit a 109.5 mph double to score a pair of runs, then right fielder Brent Rooker followed with a 110 mph two-run home run. 

Johnson’s ERA is now 15.12 on the season.

The Angels’ bats tried to make a comeback in the middle innings with a solo home run by centerfielder Mike Trout in the third for his 12th home run of the year and then a bases-loaded walk by Trout in the fourth scored another. 

The next batter, third baseman Vaughn Grissom hit a bases-loaded two-strike single to score two more runs to make a two-run game at the time, but then the bullpen put the game out of hand.

In the eighth, a leadoff hit by pitch by first baseman Nolan Schanuel, followed by back-to-back two-strike doubles by catcher Logan O’Hoppe and leftfielder Josh Lowe, gave the Angels another two runs, but it wasn’t enough to make things interesting.

The Angels only struck out four times tonight and eight of their 10 hits came with two strikes. It’s a step in the right direction for the team with by far the most strikeouts in baseball.

“We've been really focusing on battling with two strikes,” Suzuki said. “Not just trying to put the ball in play, but put some good swings on some pitches and not try to do too much.”

The Angels have now lost 22 of their last 28 games and have the worst record in baseball by two games.