Angels’ pitchers struggle on way to 9th loss in 10 games
Reid Detmers, who has been the Angels’ best starter this season, is charged with five runs in five innings and Luis Garcia, who had not allowed a run in his previous nine games, gives up four runs in the seventh in an 11-5 defeat.
ANAHEIM — Reid Detmers had been the Angels’ best starting pitcher all season and Luis Garcia had been their best reliever over the past few weeks.
Both had a chance to help the Angels stop their slide on Sunday, and both endured miserable outings.
The Angels lost to the Minnesota Twins, 11-5, falling for the ninth time in the past 10 games. The Angels, who gave up 16 runs on Saturday, are 10-18
Detmers, who carried a 2.12 ERA to the mound, was charged with five runs in five-plus innings, all of them scoring after he started the game with three perfect innings.
The Angels briefly threatened to overcome Detmers’ performance and end their losing streak, striking for four quick runs to get back within 5-4, but then Garcia let it get away.
Garcia entered in the seventh with the Angels down by a run. He had not allowed a run in his previous nine games, and he’d gone 32 consecutive batters without issuing a walk.
Garcia walked two of the first three hitters of the inning, sandwiched around a bloop single. Garcia then gave up a two-run double to Alex Kiriloff. Two more runs scored before Garcia was pulled with the Angels down 9-4.
The Twins tacked on two unearned runs against Zac Kristofak in his major league debut.
The first batter that Kristofak faced reached on an error by second baseman Brandon Drury. It was one of three errors the Angels made on an ugly afternoon.
A pitchers’ duel between Detmers and Twins righty Pablo López disintegrated quickly.
Neither pitcher allowed a single baserunner through the first three innings, but Detmers cracked in the fourth, allowing a run on three hits. In the fifth, he gave up four more runs after allowing the first four batters of the inning to get hits.
Down 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth, the Angels finally got their first baserunner when Logan O’Hoppe doubled down the left field line.
Within the next 13 pitches, the Angels scored four runs. Jo Adell ripped a line drive off the glove of third baseman José Miranda, stretching it into a double as the ball trickled into left field.
Luis Rengifo then hit a first-pitch two-run homer, and Nolan Schanuel followed by yanking a homer just inside the right field pole.
The Angels went down in the order in the sixth, and by the time they came up in the seventh, they were down by five again.
More to come on this story.