Detmers not dialed in as Angels dealt loss
Left-hander says he doesn’t feel right after rough start in setback from strong stretch.
DETROIT — Tyler Alexander pitched six strong innings and the Detroit Tigers’ bullpen finished off a 4-3 win over the Angels on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers had lost two straight and 10 of 12.
Reid Detmers (4-4) took the loss for the Angels, surrendering four runs on 10 hits in 41⁄3 innings.
“I was just having a hard time getting settled in,” said Detmers, who was 2-0 with a 1.50 earned-run average in his previous six starts. “Nothing felt right coming out of my hand, and I’m not sure why. I’ll have to go back and watch the video.”
Angels interim manager Phil Nevin wasn’t worried about the loss of velocity on Detmers’ fastball, saying “his slider was right where we expect it. He said he felt fine, so it is more than likely a mechanical issue.”
Alexander (3-7) gave up three runs on seven hits and a walk in six innings, getting his first win in eight starts this season. Detroit’s bullpen then pitched three hitless innings, with Gregory Soto throwing the ninth for his 23rd save.
“I liked the way I finished, especially the way I started,” said Alexander, who yielded one run in each of the first three innings. “I couldn’t get the ball inside like I wanted. I didn’t make any mechanical adjustments — I just made better pitches in the last
three innings.”
The Tigers’ bullpen has been strong all season and it did not yield a hit or a run Saturday, but the starting pitching leads the American League with a 3.15 ERA since the All-Star break. That hasn’t been enough to overcome the team’s lack of offense — Detroit is 9-21 in that stretch — but manager A.J. Hinch is encouraged.
“We’re at a point where we expect a good start,” he said. “And we expect to win if we give our bullpen a lead.”
Unlike Friday’s game, which the Angels won 1-0 in 2 hours 15 minutes, hits and runs were common for both teams in the early innings.
Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a double and scored on Luis Rengifo’s base hit, and the Angels took a 2-0 lead in the second on Andrew Velazquez’s homer.
The Tigers scored twice on five hits and a basesloaded walk in the second inning, and could have had more if right fielder Taylor Ward hadn’t thrown out Jonathan Schoop at the plate. Schoop injured his right ankle on the slide and was replaced by Kody Clemens.
“It’s an ankle sprain, and he’s day to day,” Hinch said of Schoop. “We haven’t scored a lot lately, and Ramon [Santiago, third-base coach] was probably trying to be aggressive, especially with a wet ball.”
Jo Adell put the Angels ahead 3-2 with a sacrifice fly in the top of the third, but Jeimer Candelario had one of his own in the bottom of the inning.
Victor Reyes gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead with an RBI single off reliever Jaime Barría in the fifth.
The Tigers had a runner on second with two out in the third inning when Tucker Barnhart hit a groundball to Velazquez at short. Instead of making the easy throw to first, Velazquez threw to a startled Rengifo at third and everyone was safe.
Luckily for Velazquez, Mike Trout prevented any further damage with a leaping catch of a line drive to center.
“He said he knew how many outs there were, but the runner cut in front of him and he lost his focus for a second,” Nevin said of Velazquez, normally a fine fielder. “It was a mistake, but Mike bailed him out.”
Technical problems knocked out the Comerica Park sound system for a couple of innings, leaving the game without walk-up music, batter announcements or big-screen entertainment between innings. Normal sounds resumed in the fifth inning.