BALTIMORE — The Angels welcomed back Mike Trout and Reid Detmers on Friday night.
Now they just need to get a few more guys back.
The Angels built an early three-run lead on the strength of a Trout three-run homer and six scoreless innings from Detmers, but the rest of the lineup couldn’t provide enough cushion for the bullpen, and closer Raisel Iglesias let a two-run lead get away in the ninth in a 5-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
In his first game back after a brief stint in Triple-A, Detmers struck out eight in six innings, but the offense did not pad the lead enough when the Angels bullpen took over with a 3-0 lead in the seventh.
José Quijada and Ryan Tepera each gave up single runs in the seventh and eighth, respectively.
Shohei Ohtani hit a homer in the top of the ninth to give Iglesias a two-run lead. He picked up the first two outs easily, but he couldn’t get the third.
Rougned Odor lined a single into left field. The Angels then let Odor take second and third while Adley Rutschman was at the plate. Rutschman then lined a double into right-center, cutting the lead to one. Cedric Mullins then lined a 1-and-2 pitch into center field to drive in the tying run.
Trey Mancini then drilled a hit into left field to end it.
Iglesias had struggled in late May and early June, but since then he’d allowed just two runs in his last 11 innings, with 17 strikeouts.
The shocking ending ruined a night that could have been a celebration of Detmers and Trout.
Trout had been in a 1-for-25 slump. He said on Thursday night that he finally felt right again after he hit two drives that were caught at the warning track.
He showed that it was indeed a sign of things to come when he yanked line-drive singles in the first and fifth innings. In between, he launched a homer just inside the left field pole in the third inning. It was Trout’s first homer since June 28, his 24th of the season.
As for Detmers, he’d been shipped off to Triple-A with a 4.66 ERA.
Detmers, who turned 23 on Friday, said he had lost the feel for his slider throughout his first stint in the majors this year, despite the fact that he threw a no-hitter. After returning to Triple-A and working with one of the Angels’ minor league pitching coaches, he said he had rediscovered the pitch.
Detmers had thrown his slider just 16.5% of the time earlier in the season, and he threw it 39.6% of the time on Friday night.
The Orioles were 1 for 10 with four strikeouts in at-bats that ended with a slider.
The velocity on his slider was up to 86.4 mph from 82.9 mph earlier this season. He’s still not to the point it was at last season, when he got whiffs on 29.1% of swings at his slider. The Orioles whiffed at just four of their 22 swings (18.1%) on Friday night.
Overall, though, Detmers got 13 swings and misses, which is three more than he got during his May 10 no-hitter.
