ANAHEIM, Calif. — For six innings Friday night, Reid Detmers and Joe Ryan kept baseballs all but unhittable.
Then the bullpens got involved. And suddenly, hitting became easy.
Detmers held the Minnesota Twins without a hit until Byron Buxton lined a two-out single in the sixth inning, yet Ryan left with a lead for the eighth time in nine starts once the Twins pounded Angels relievers Jimmy Herget and Tucker Davidson. But Griffin Jax surrendered three hits, including an RBI triple to Mickey Montiak, in the Angels' two-run seventh and the Twins walked away with yet another painful loss, 5-4 at Angels Stadium.
Jax relieved Ryan with the Twins holding a 4-3 lead, courtesy of a Willi Castro home run off Davidson. But for the fifth time in eight May appearances, Jax quickly found trouble.
The righthander allowed a one-out single to right field to Zach Neto, then got ahead of Montiak with two quick strikes. But the next pitch, a low changeup, wound up hugging the first-base line into the right-field corner. By the time Trevor Larnach reached it, whirled and threw it toward the infield, Neto was scoring the tying run easily and Montiak was headed for third base.
With Jhoan Duran warming in the bullpen, the Twins stayed stayed with Jax, who induced a ground ball to third from Taylor Ward. Kyle Farmer threw it home to retire Montiak, but the Angels weren't done.
The Twins' reliever has been hit hard for a month now; since April 21, Jax has allowed 10 earned runs in 11 innings, an 8.18 ERA.
All that bullpen difficulty overshadowed a strong night by the starters. Detmers induced 24 swing-and-misses, the most against the Twins this season, while Ryan recorded his own season-high with 17. Detmers tied a career-high with 12 strikeouts, while Ryan, who allowed three runs, two of them earned, whiffed nine.
And Detmers, who no-hit the Tampa Bay Rays last season, cruised through the first five innings, with only a pair of walks spoiling his perfect night.
But he walked Carlos Correa with two outs in the sixth, then left a fastball where could swat it into left field, the Twins' first hit. Farmer followed by dropping a looper over Neto's head at shortstop, scoring Correa and ending Detmers' night. And Herget's third pitch in relief was lined into right field by pinch-hitter Alex Kirilloff, a two-run double that tied the score.
Castro broke the tie with a first-pitch home run, his second of the season, in the seventh. But the lead wouldn't last.
