ANAHEIM -- Lefty Reid Detmers was nearly perfect, but it nearly wasn’t enough for the Angels, who executed late despite not being able to hold a one-run lead in the eighth.
Detmers retired the first 15 batters he faced before giving up a solo homer to Shay Whitcomb to open the sixth. Still, it was the only batter to reach against him over seven strong innings, and Jose Siri delivered a walk-off single to give the Angels a 3-2 win in 10 innings on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium.
“That was definitely an outing you don't want to waste,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I thought he piggybacked off what he did in L.A. [against the Dodgers]. He was attacking with strikes. I mean, I feel like he was strike one, strike two on every batter that came up. He’s been executing pitches and putting guys away.”
Detmers, who memorably threw a no-hitter against the Rays as a rookie in 2022, has been on an impressive run recently, and he kept it going against the Astros. He led the American League with 46 strikeouts in May and came in with a 1.89 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 19 innings over his last three starts. He was stuck with a tough-luck no-decision but lowered his ERA to 4.00 in 14 starts with 97 strikeouts and 24 walks in 81 innings.
And although he racked up nine strikeouts against Houston, he was efficient, needing just 89 pitches to record 21 outs. He threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 22 batters he faced and used his slider and four-seamer as putaway pitches, as he registered 11 swings and misses, including six with his slider and four with his fastball.
“I felt like I had a little bit of everything working, which is nice and doesn’t happen very often,” Detmers said. "Everything felt really good. Late in the game, the slider started coming around. Early in the game, it was more curveball, changeup and high fastball. But really, everything was working.”
His lone blemish was Whitcomb's homer to open the sixth. Whitcomb entered with just two homers in 56 career games but connected on a 1-0 fastball at the top of the zone and drove it over the fence in left-center.
But Detmers was staked to an early lead with Mike Trout smacking a solo shot in the first off right-hander Peter Lambert. It was Trout’s team-leading 15th of the year, but his first since May 30. Logan O’Hoppe added a solo blast of his own in the fifth for his third of the year and first since May 31.
“It felt great,” O’Hoppe said. “I've mentioned the work the past couple days, and it just feels good that it's coming together. It didn’t feel like a fluke or just ran into a ball. Everything I was doing, I was in control of everything. I've been building for the last two weeks since Tampa, and I’m going to continue to do it.”
Right-hander Chase Silseth relieved Detmers in the eighth but promptly gave up a game-tying solo homer to Cam Smith to open the inning. Suzuki felt like Detmers had done enough after seven innings, and Detmers said he didn’t get the chance to plead his case for another inning.
“We felt like he did his job pitching through the seventh,” Suzuki said. “We wanted to give the reliever a clean inning. Not saying that he wouldn't have got out of the next inning, but we wanted to give him a clean inning and have Detmers finish on a good note.”
Sam Bachman nearly surrendered the go-ahead run in the ninth, but Yordan Alvarez was tagged out at home on a wild play that saw Zach Neto overthrow home, only for Alvarez to get thrown out trying to advance. Bachman made a perfect throw home despite the ball hitting off Isaac Paredes in the on-deck circle, and the Angels finally caught a break and took advantage of it with Siri’s walk-off hit in the bottom of the frame.
“The throw out of Neto's hand, I thought it was right in my chest, and then it took off on me,” O’Hoppe said. “Bach was behind me, and it's the little things like that that we work on all the way back in Spring Training. It gave me another chance at a play at the plate, and I'm happy it worked out, for sure.”