Detmers quietly transforming into one of MLB's top starters post-break

ANAHEIM -- Lefty Reid Detmers has been one of the best pitchers in baseball since the All-Star break and kept it up by going toe-to-toe with AL Cy Young Award candidate Cam Schlittler on Wednesday.

Detmers allowed one run on six hits over seven strong innings in a 6-3, 10-inning loss to the Yankees in the series finale at Angel Stadium. He struck out eight without issuing a walk, bringing his second-half ERA down to 1.52, with 59 strikeouts and nine walks in 53 1/3 innings in nine starts. He leads all qualified starters in ERA since the All-Star break. In his return to the rotation this year, he has a 3.44 ERA in 28 starts, with 182 strikeouts in 162 innings.​

Detmers did think about the pitchers’ duel between him and Schlittler and was pleased with the way he pitched, although frustrated it came in another loss.

“Honestly, I am kind of pitching against the other pitcher,” Detmers said. “Every time I go out, I’m trying to beat the other guy. You’re trying to outlast him. You're trying to have more strikeouts. You're trying to beat him. It was a good game. Obviously, he pitched really well. It’s not the outcome we wanted, but move on to the next.”

Detmers has been filling up the strike zone this season, and that was again the case facing the Yankees, as he threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 25 batters he faced, and 76 of his 99 pitches went for strikes. He also induced plenty of whiffs, getting 17 swings and misses, including 12 with his slider, three with his four-seamer and two with his changeup.

“Reid was awesome,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Matching [Schlittler] pitch for pitch and executing his pitches. He was hitting his spots.”

Under interim pitching coach Tim Leveque, the club’s pitchers have been told to go with their best pitch more, which is why Detmers leaned so heavily on his slider. He threw it 51 percent of the time, which is way above his season average of 32 percent.

“The slider was good,” Detmers said. “It kind of got a little bigger later in the game, but I was able to dial it down when I needed to and have it in my back pocket.”

Detmers gave up a leadoff single to Paul Goldschmidt to open the game but promptly erased it with a double-play grounder from Cody Bellinger. He went on to retire eight in a row before giving up back-to-back singles to open the fourth.

He was helped by a line-drive double play hit to shortstop Zach Neto, but then allowed a single to Ben Rice and an RBI ground-rule double to Amed Rosario down the right-field line. But he struck out Spencer Jones on three pitches to strand two runners in scoring position.

Detmers went on to hold the Yankees scoreless to finish his outing, including striking out the last two batters he faced in Jones and José Caballero. It helped him complete seven innings for the sixth time this year and was the 10th time he didn’t walk a batter this season.

“Just staying on the attack and just getting ahead of guys,” Detmers said. “You're starting to see more teams not wanting to get to two strikes, so they're starting to swing a lot earlier. So that’s a part of it.”

As has been the case much of the season for Detmers, he didn’t get much run support. But this time, the Angels at least had a better excuse in facing Schlittler, who entered with a AL-low 2.09 ERA in 28 starts. They managed just two hits against him in eight innings, but one was big, with Vaughn Grissom tying the game with a solo homer in the seventh. Grissom ripped a 1-0 cutter over the middle for his 10th blast of the year.

Reliever Luke Murphy struggled in the 10th, allowing five runs with two outs, while the Angels saw rookie Moisés Ballesteros hit his first homer with his new club in the bottom of the inning. It was a positive moment for Ballesteros, who was acquired in a trade with the Cubs for reliever Ryan Zeferjahn on Aug. 3, but they dropped the three-game series ahead of a three-city East Coast road trip through Pittsburgh, Boston and Washington.

“I know Bally has been working really hard with the hitting guys on his swing,” Suzuki said. “I bet that swing felt really good for him. “