Angels waste solid start by Reid Detmers, drop third in a row to Red Sox
Detmers gave up two runs in 6-1/3 innings, but the Angels' bats went quiet. The Angels have lost the first three games of this four-game series, with Shohei Ohtani starting the finale on Monday.
BOSTON — The Angels cleaned up their pitching and defensive mistakes just in time for their bats to go quiet.
A collective offensive outage wasted a strong outing by starter Reid Detmers in the Angels’ 2-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.
The Angels have lost the first three games of this four-game series, with Shohei Ohtani taking the mound on Monday to try to avoid a sweep.
A litany of fundamental errors marked the Angels losses on Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday it was a simple matter of failure to produce at the plate.
“You can nitpick all you want but it was well-pitched on both sides and they just got one more than we did,” manager Phil Nevin said.
When they did have an opportunity to score in the eighth inning, pinch-runner Brett Phillips spoiled it by getting picked off second base. Phillips said he beat the throw, but second baseman Christian Arroyo was blocking the base with his foot, which is within the rules.
“I slid back into the bag and I’m sliding into someone’s foot,” Phillips said. “From here on out, I will be going really, really hard into the bag, with my cleats, because that’s embarrassing, getting blocked there. That’s the rules. That’s how the game’s played. That’s how it went down.”
The Angels had just four hits. Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani combined to go hitless in four at-bats. It was the first time this season that Ohtani failed to reach base by a hit or walk, ending a 36-game streak, dating back to last year.
The Angels had three hits in seven innings against right-hander Garrett Whitlock, who the Angels said surprised them by throwing more changeups than usual. Anthony Rendon led off the second with a double and he scored on Brandon Drury’s two-out single.
That inning ended with Drury getting caught stealing second. Luis Rengifo was at third, and he was supposed to break for home on the throw.
That was it for the Angels’ offense.
They put the leadoff man on the third, sixth and eighth innings, but double plays snuffed out two of those opportunities and the pickoff ended the third.
Detmers took a hard-luck loss after giving up two runs in 6-1/3 innings, both of them on one swing by Justin Turner.
In the third inning, Detmers threw Turner an 0-and-1 fastball just off the inside corner of the plate, and Turner yanked it over the Green Monster for a two-run homer.
“That’s pretty much right where I wanted (the pitch),” Detmers said. “It could have bene a little higher up in the zone, but I think he was cheating on a heater there. It was a good pitch on my end, but he had a better swing on it.”
After that, Detmers retired the next eight hitters. He gave up back-to-back singles to start the sixth, but escaped with the help of a double play. Detmers finished with seven strikeouts and one walk.
Although it was a good performance, it came in yet another frustrating loss. The Angels dropped to 7-8. They’ve had the lead in seven of their eight losses, and all of those losses have been by one or two runs.
“Obviously we’ve got to come out with more wins,” Detmers said. “Things just aren’t falling away right now. It’s gonna turn around very quickly.”
Trout was also able to remain optimistic.
“Its been tough, but we’ve still got a lot of baseball left,” Trout said. “It’s early. It’s April 16. No panic.”