ANAHEIM -- For lefty Reid Detmers, it’s always going to be tough to top the no-hitter he threw against the Rays as a rookie in 2022.
But Detmers was perhaps even more dominant than that against the Rangers on Sunday night, as he struck out a career-high 14 batters over eight spectacular innings, and the Angels won it on a walk-off error in a 2-1 win in the series finale to complete their first sweep of the year at Angel Stadium. The Angels scored the winning run on a throwing error from second baseman Justin Foscue on a potential double play and have won three straight games for the second time this year and first time since April 4-6.
Detmers' 14 strikeouts were the most by an Angels pitcher since Andrew Heaney punched out 14 Rangers on Aug. 20, 2019. Detmers had previously struck out 12 batters four times, including twice against Texas in his career.
“It was pretty awesome,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Just vintage. Attacking the zone, putting away sliders, landing curveballs whenever he needed to for strikes and he had some good life on his fastball today.”
Detmers didn’t walk a batter and allowed just one hit, a solo homer from Jake Burger on a 1-0 changeup in the second inning. Detmers ranked it as his second-best performance of his six-year career.
“I mean, a no-hitter is a no-hitter,” Detmers said with a smile. “But I would say stuff-wise, this is probably the best game. But nothing's going to beat a no-hitter.”
He finished with a flurry, retiring the last 21 batters he faced, including 13 via strikeouts, after Burger’s homer gave Texas an early lead. He exited having thrown 96 pitches, including inducing a career-high 23 swings and misses with 12 coming on his slider, eight on his four-seamer, two with his changeup and one with his curveball.
Suzuki said he didn’t consider bringing him back for the ninth, but believes his outing was up there with his no-hitter, which came when Suzuki was his teammate.
“You never discredit a no-hitter because it's special, but for him, I think what made it even better was the strikeouts,” Suzuki said. “Not many balls put in play, that's for sure. And he struck out 14 guys in under 100 pitches. That's even more impressive.”
It was tied for the second-most strikeouts with no walks in a game in franchise history behind only Frank Tanana’s 17 on June 21, 1975. And it tied Seattle’s Emerson Hancock for the most strikeouts in a game this season. Detmers also became just the 14th pitcher since 1900 to strike out at least 14 batters with no walks and just one hit allowed, and the first to do it since Houston’s Cristian Javier on July 1, 2022.
“He was locating his fastball really well,” Burger said. “Getting ahead of the guys really early, and mixing in all of his off-speed off of that fastball. But when he gets his fastball working and where he wants it, it’s pretty good."
It helped Detmers lower his ERA from 5.07 to 4.57 in 11 starts this year. His peripheral stats remain strong with 75 strikeouts, 19 walks and allowing five homers over 63 innings in his return to the rotation after pitching in relief last season.
“Not all the games have been frustrating, but there's definitely a couple with the bloop shots and stuff like that,” Detmers said. “It's definitely a huge relief to get through six, seven, and eight innings without bloop shots dropping.”
Detmers, though, didn’t get much help from the offense, as the Angels managed just one hit against lefty MacKenzie Gore through six innings. Mike Trout plated a run with a broken-bat RBI single with two outs in the third after Gore walked two batters.
But after reliever Sam Bachman threw a scoreless ninth and escaped a jam with the bases loaded by striking out Burger, the Angels rallied in the bottom of the ninth to complete their first series sweep over the Rangers since Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2022. It helped the Angels finish their 10-game homestand with a 4-6 record after they opened it by getting swept by the Dodgers and losing three out of four to the Athletics.
“Definitely nice, feels good,” Suzuki said. "To our guys' credit, they battled this series. They had a lot of energy and they played together. They did a lot of good things to help the team win and it was fun to be a part of.”