ANAHEIM — After two encouraging starts – against contenders – Reid Detmers turned in a dud against a historically awful team.
The Angels left-hander gave up seven runs in an 8-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox, who have lost 115 games.
The White Sox might be just six losses away from breaking the dubious record set by the 1962 New York Mets, but they still hammered Detmers. He gave up three runs in the first – on two homers – and then three more in the second.
Detmers gave up a third homer in the third inning, before settling down to get 10 more outs without further damage. He made it through 5⅓ innings.
“They’re still big leaguers,” Detmers said of the White Sox. “If you leave it over the plate, they’re gonna hit home runs. So you can’t leave pitches down the middle. Obviously, the pitches I had on the corners, they were following them off. Just trying to get a little too cute with it, leaving them over the plate. That’s when you give up home runs.”
Detmers had given up four runs in 12 innings in consecutive outings against the Dodgers and Minnesota Twins in his first two starts after returning from a three-month stint in Triple-A.
Manager Ron Washington said it was clear Detmers didn’t have the same command this time, and then he wasn’t able to adjust once he fell behind.
“Tonight it looked like he was fighting himself,” Washington said. “You can see the body language out there. He didn’t have the feel for the things he wanted to do. And when it didn’t happen, he didn’t stay focused and try to make it happen. Looked like he just gave in to it. That’s the type of thing that he’s got to fight. We all know what his ability is, but the mental side of it is where he has to fight.”
Offensively, the Angels got a pair of homers. Eric Wagaman (Aliso Niguel High, Orange Coast College) hit his first major league homer in the second. Charles Leblanc hit a homer in the fifth.
Gustavo Campero picked up his first major league hit with an RBI single in the seventh, pulling the Angels within 8-4.
The Angels (60-90) have lost their last six games and are 30 games under .500 for the first time since 1999.
More to come on this story.
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