Shoemaker shows signs of dominance
Pitcher gets out of a jam and settles down in flashback to his hot streak in 2016.
One year ago this month, the Angels’ Matt Shoemaker transformed himself from one of the worst pitchers in baseball into one of the best. His was a turnaround so unexpected, so lacking in explanation and so massive, it confused the entire sport.
Because of that, and because of the circumstances surrounding his initial emergence at age 27 in 2014, he will always foster hope when he produces a start like he did in the Angels’ Friday night victory over Detroit, 7-0. It forces the question: Is the great Shoemaker back?
If that answer becomes affirmative in the coming weeks, the moment he returned will be clear. He loaded the bases without an out in Friday’s second inning, then became unhittable. From that moment forward, Shoemaker retired 15 of the 16 hitters he faced and struck out six of them. Miguel Cabrera was the only Tiger to reach base, on a twoout single in the third.
“That looks like Shoe when he’s on,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
From May 21 to July 22 last year, Shoemaker was on for every start. He logged a superb 2.39 ERA over 12 starts, striking out 93 hitters while walking 10. Because he had carried an awful 9.12 through his first six starts, talent evaluators didn’t know quite what to make of it.
Even now, it’s a constant frame of reference. Scioscia cited that run before the game, saying he hoped Shoemaker could recapture it. Asked what went right Friday night, Shoemaker used the same ambiguously powerful word he did to explain himself last summer: intent.
“There’s intent behind every pitch,” Shoemaker said. “When you have intent behind every pitch, your ball moves a little bit more. It moves a little bit later. You’re not being passive.”
For the night, Shoemaker struck out seven and allowed only four baserunners. He had thrown only 94 pitches through six innings, but the Angels already led by five so Scioscia pulled him in favor of Blake Parker.
The Angels, too, loaded the bases without an out in the second and did little with it. But they managed one run, to tack on to Luis Valbuena’s solo shot that began that inning. They added a run in the fourth — on a single and double interspersed with groundouts — a run in the fifth on two singles and an error, and a run in the sixth on a double, a bunt and single.
Well-paid Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann, not long ago a borderline ace, has this season proven incapable of lasting deep into games. The Angels kept that going, punishing him for 10 hits and three walks in 51⁄3 innings and striking out just twice. They did it again against well-paid Tigers reliever Anibal Sanchez in the eighth, collecting three hits and two runs on Mike Trout’s 430-foot shot.
Trout nearly finished 0 for 4 for the second consecutive night, since his extended absence because of a tight left hamstring. He had not gone 0 for 4 on consecutive days since the first two games of the 2016 season, but he avoided that by clobbering a two-run home run with two outs in the Angels’ half of the eighth.
The Angels (18-20) had not won a game by more than five runs all season, so Friday counted as a clobbering.
pedro.moura@latimes.com Twitter: @pedromoura