Angels’ struggling Reid Detmers searching for solutions
The left-hander started the season with four strong starts, but he is 0-4 with an 8.74 ERA over his last four starts and allowed a combined 13 runs in his last two.
ANAHEIM — It is merely May and yet Angels left-hander Reid Detmers already is in the middle of two distinctly different stretches.
Detmers opened the season looking as if he was ready to consistently operate amid his high ceiling when he was 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA over his first four starts and pitching as well as anybody over the first 2½ weeks of the season.
What followed was the complete opposite, with Detmers going 0-4 with an 8.74 ERA over his last four starts. And it only seems to be getting worse with Detmers allowing a combined 13 runs over his last two outings.
In a start against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday night, Detmers was tagged for six runs on seven hits over four innings. He allowed a pair of home runs, including one to Dairon Blanco, his only homer in 27 games heading into play Monday.
Known more for his speed, Blanco had four home runs over his first 101 games in the major leagues and 35 steals over the same time.
“I don’t know; I’ve been thinking a lot,” a downtrodden Detmers said after the outing. “Everything feels the same. Body feels the same. I don’t know. I have to do a deep dive. I have to go back and look at some stuff.
“It feels the same, but obviously the results are not the same. We’re going to dig into it and see if we can figure something out.”
His chance to reverse the trend will come Tuesday night when he faces the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that was just over an hour and a half drive from where he grew up in southern Illinois. Detmers has admitted that in his youth, the Cardinals were his favorite team.
Detmers’ motivation will no doubt be high for the outing, with indications that he used his between-start bullpen session Saturday to fine tune multiple issues that had been giving him trouble.
“It’s usually different every time to be honest with you, but obviously video helps,” Detmers said about what tools help him when he is looking to get back on track. “Data helps in some circumstances. But I don’t know. It’s one of those things that you don’t know what to think.”
In consecutive starts against the Boston Red Sox earlier this season, he gave up a combined one run over 12⅓ innings with 19 strikeouts. In five starts (28 innings) since, he has 23 strikeouts with 10 walks.
“I got off to such a good start and then all of a sudden four bad ones in a row,” Detmers said. “It’s frustrating so obviously we’re going to be looking at video and data. Hopefully we find something and get this thing turned around.”
OLD FRIEND
Former Angels catcher Bengie Molina will join the Angels’ Spanish-language radio broadcast for two innings Tuesday, while also making one-inning appearances on 830 AM, as well the Bally Sports West television broadcast.
The spots will come as Molina takes a short break from his current full-time position as color commentator on the Cardinals’ Spanish language radio broadcasts.
Molina, 49, was the Angels’ starting catcher when the organization won its only World Series title in 2002. He made his major league debut in 1998 and played a handful of games in 1999 but was officially a rookie in 2000 when he finished fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting.
Molina won the first of his consecutive AL Gold Glove Awards in 2002, while also batting .245 with five home runs and 47 RBIs in 122 games of the championship season.
In 13 major league seasons with the Angels (1998-2005), Toronto Blue Jays (2006) San Francisco Giants (2007-10) and Texas Rangers (2010), Molina was a career .274 hitter in 1,362 games and hit 144 home runs with 711 RBIs. He served as a coach in the Cardinals’ organization in 2013 and moved to the team’s radio booth in 2016.
ALSO
Infielder Luis Rengifo fielded ground balls as he continued to improve from blisters on his feet that were the result of a viral infection. Placed on the IL last week, Rengifo is on track to rejoin the roster when he becomes eligible on Friday. … Right-hander Guillermo Zuniga, who has been on the injured list since April 8 with a right pectoral strain, started a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League.
UP NEXT
Cardinals (RHP Sonny Gray, 4-2, 2.29 ERA) at Angels (LHP Reid Detmers, 3-4, 4.96 ERA), Tuesday, 6:38 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM