ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Angels came out swinging Sunday, with Reid Detmers putting up a career-high in strikeouts (12) and pitching seven innings of three-hit, two-run baseball, throwing an immaculate inning along the way.
And the Angels strung together eight hits and four walks but couldn’t pull off a win, losing 5-2 to the Texas Rangers at Angel Stadium.
Detmers has been much improved since returning from his brief stint back in the minor leagues. The same pitcher who threw a no-hitter in May struggled through June, including consecutive starts in which he gave up a combined nine earned runs and four home runs.
Since his return to the rotation on July 8, he hasn’t given up more than two earned runs in a game. Adding to that improvement was his second inning Sunday. Detmers threw nine pitches, all strikes — on a combination of his four-seam fastball, sinker and slider — to three batters for the third immaculate inning in Angels franchise history, joining Nolan Ryan (1972) and Garrett Richards (2014).
Shohei Ohtani got the offense going in the first, with a triple off Rangers starter Dane Dunning that fell just fair in right field. Then Luis Rengifo, on a full count, hit a single that bounced into left field to score Ohtani.
Ohtani‘s and Rengifo’s efforts tied the score at 1-1, after Detmers gave up a leadoff walk to Marcus Semien, who scored three batters later on Nathaniel Lowe’s single.
In the bottom of the second, Max Stassi and Brandon Marsh had consecutive singles and Dillon Thomas walked to load the bases. Andrew Velazquez hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-1.
The Rangers tied the score in the fifth. Charlie Culberson hit a double that rolled along the left-field line and bounced off the left-most corner.
It was a similar play to the one that added an error to Jo Adell’s stat sheet two games prior. This time, it was Marsh who was turned around by the ball’s movement in the corner, and Culberson was able to get to third. Marsh was charged with an error.
Culberson was driven in by Elier Hernandez the next at-bat. The run was not earned.
The Rangers pulled away in the ninth inning after getting a single and a walk off reliever Jose Quijada before he was able to get the first strikeout. Quijada walked his fourth batter to load the bases and his day was done.
Raisel Iglesias came in needing two outs, but Ezequiel Duran hit Iglesias’ 1-and-0 pitch close to the center-right field section of the wall, which Taylor Ward was unable to catch. Three runs scored.
