ARLINGTON, Texas — A day after the Angels scored 18 runs, they returned to their offensive malaise and managed just one.
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It was almost enough.
After scoring the game’s first run in the top of the 10th, the Angels gave up two with two outs in the bottom of the inning, losing to the Texas Rangers, 2-1, on Friday night, once again wasting a scoreless start from Reid Detmers.
“Last night was good,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Tonight was a little bit of a struggle. The timely hits kind of eluded us tonight. It’s not going to be perfect every night. You’ve got to go out there and just have the best at-bats you can and see what we come up with.”
The Angels still nearly won. Right-hander Ben Joyce, who had not given up a run in any of his first six games, was a strike away from ending it when the Rangers’ Wyatt Langford blooped a 102 mph pitch into right field for a game-tying double.
After an intentional walk, Joyce gave up a hard smash down the third base line. Denzer Guzman made a diving stop, but then he made a bad throw to second. The winning run scored as the ball rolled into the outfield.
“Great play, obviously,” Suzuki said. “One of those tough ones that wasn’t finished. Great jump off the ball. Great diving play. Just didn’t finish it.”
The Angels had missed a chance to get insurance in the top of the 10th, after Guzman’s leadoff double gave them a run with no outs. They couldn’t get Guzman home.
Josh Lowe failed to get a bunt down, striking out when trying to bunt with two strikes. Tyler Heineman then hit a fly ball to right field, sending Guzman to third. Oswald Peraza then struck out.
“Huge run out there,” Suzuki said. “Obviously would have liked to cash it in. I think it would have definitely helped us. But that’s baseball. It’s part of the game. These things that we’re working on, we’re working every day to get better at them.”
Prior to the 10th, the Angels had only one runner in scoring position all night, in the second inning.
It didn’t help their cause that two of their better hitters – Nolan Schanuel and Wade Meckler – were out of the lineup. Schanuel tweaked his side on Thursday night, and Meckler was still undergoing concussion tests after he was hit in the head by a pitch.
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The lack of offense was familiar, except for the aberration of Thursday night’s 18-run outburst.
Detmers has seen this plenty of times. He must have watched Thursday’s game and wished the Angels could save some of those runs for him. The Angels (51-78) have not scored more than one run with Detmers on the mound since June 27, including five games when they didn’t score a single run.
The 18 runs they scored on Thursday night was more than they have scored for Detmers over the past two months. Detmers has a 1.56 ERA in seven starts since the All-Star break, but he has only one victory in that time because of the poor run support.
“It is what it is,” Detmers said. “Trying not to think about it too much. If you think about it, it’s just gonna take you out of your game, so I don’t really think about a whole lot. It’s nothing I can control. I just try to focus on stuff that I can control.”
Detmers has been particularly good against the Rangers. In four starts against Texas this season, Detmers has a 2.63 ERA, and five of the seven runs he’s allowed were in one game.
In May, he pitched one of the best games of his career against the Rangers, striking out 14 while allowing one hit in eight innings.
On Friday, his only real trouble was in the fifth inning, when a soft single, a line drive and a bunt hit loaded the bases with one out. The Angels got the second out on a force at the plate. Detmers then struck out Corey Seager looking at a fastball to retire the side.
“I’ve faced Corey a lot over the last couple years and thrown a lot of sliders to him, thrown a lot of fastballs,” Detmers said. “The bases were loaded and thought I’d go with the pitch that felt the best. Obviously, he took some really good sliders, so in my head I knew he was sitting on a slider, so I just thought I’d challenge him with a fastball.”
Detmers then worked a clean sixth, finishing with yet another solid start in what has been a breakout season. Detmers has a 3.62 ERA in a career-high 149 innings. His 172 strikeouts are also a career high.
“It’s been good,” Detmers said. “Six or seven starts to go. Body feels great. I’m just taking it start by start. Not trying to overthink it. I’m just trying to every five days give the team a chance to win, and try to go out there and give my all.”
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