ANAHEIM -- He wasn’t quite as sharp as he’d been during his recent run of dominance, but Reid Detmers still did enough, registering his seventh straight quality start in Monday’s series opener against the Mariners.
Detmers kept his stellar second half going, allowing three runs on seven hits and a walk over six innings in a 6-4 win at Angel Stadium. He was hurt by a three-run homer to Cal Raleigh in the fourth but was otherwise solid yet again. But the three runs he surrendered matched the combined number of runs he had allowed over his previous six starts.
“Just glad that I didn’t have my best stuff tonight, but was able to get through six,” Detmers said. “Just gave up the home run to Cal, so I was very satisfied. You're not always going to have your best stuff, so sometimes you have to give and take with what you’ve got.”
In 11 outings since the All-Star break, Detmers has pitched like an ace, posting an MLB-best 1.65 ERA with 76 strikeouts and 11 walks in 65 1/3 innings. It has helped him put together an impressive season in his return to the rotation after pitching in relief last year and being a trade candidate at the Deadline. Detmers, who is under team control for two more years, improved to 6-8 with a 3.36 ERA in a career-high 30 starts.
He’s also up to 199 strikeouts in 174 innings and is just one away from becoming the first Angels pitcher to strike out 200 batters since Shohei Ohtani did it in 2022. Only 11 pitchers in franchise history have accomplished that feat, and the last lefty to do it was Chuck Finley in 1999. Detmers is scheduled to get two more starts this year, so it’s essentially a foregone conclusion he’ll reach that total.
“It’s a very exciting goal,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “It’s a big accomplishment, especially with where he was last year and the year before with the ups and downs. His attitude, everything about being a great teammate and mentoring younger pitchers, says a lot about him as a person.”
Detmers was ambushed early, with J.P. Crawford leading off the game with a single before Randy Arozarena laced a double into the left-center-field gap. But center fielder Jose Siri got to it quickly and helped execute a perfect relay, with shortstop Zach Neto firing home to get Crawford at the plate as he tried to score from first. Neto’s throw home registered at 97.3, per Statcast.
“I think the first inning set the tone with that relay,” Suzuki said. “It was perfectly executed, great tag. Neto, Siri, fantastic all-around. And then after that, Det doing what he's been doing for us and pitching amazing.”
Detmers settled down to retire the next eight batters, including five via strikeouts, but ran into trouble again in the fourth. He gave up consecutive singles to Arozarena and Dominic Canzone before he gave up a three-run homer to Raleigh on a 1-1 slider down and away.
“I thought I made a really good pitch and obviously he's a really good hitter,” Detmers said. “So you tip your cap to him. It is what it is.”
Detmers pitched around a two-out single and a stolen base later in the inning, as well as a leadoff single in the fifth and a one-out walk in the sixth. He finished his outing on a strikeout on his 95th pitch, just one start after he threw a career-high 112 pitches in a six-inning effort in Boston on Tuesday.
“I felt good enough,” said Detmers, who flew with the team from Washington D.C., on Sunday instead of flying ahead. “Definitely a little tired but otherwise, I was fine. I felt very good before the game but just started to wear down toward the end.”
He also received rare support from the offense, as he pitched with the lead after the Angels scored twice in the first, keyed by a leadoff single from Zach Neto and a double and a stolen base from Jose Siri. Neto and Siri paired up again in the third, with Neto providing an RBI triple and scoring on a single from Siri. Rookie Denzer Guzman gave the Angels two big insurance runs with a two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth.
“They were swinging it tonight,” Detmers said. “It was fun to watch. Good timely hitting, good situational hitting. It was good to see.”