LOS ANGELES — The impressive start to Ryan Zeferjahn’s season hit an All-Star sized bump in the road.
Zeferjahn, who has emerged as the Angels’ eighth-inning reliever, pitched three times this week, facing the top of the Padres order once and the top of the Dodgers order twice.
Zeferjahn has faced 16 batters this week, and 11 of those were MVPs (Dodgers stars Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman twice apiece) or multi-time All-Stars (Max Muncy of the Dodgers and Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Luis Arraez and Xander Bogaerts of the Padres). He also faced Padres’ outfielder Jackson Merrill, one of the best young players in the sport.
The results have not been good. Zeferjahn has allowed five hits and five walks to those hitters, raising his ERA from 3.55 to 5.40. Prior to that stretch, he’d struck out 22 and walked three in his first 12⅔ innings.
“He’s never done that before,” manager Ron Washington said. “There are going to be growing pains. He’s got the stuff to do it, and each time he goes out there, he’s got to learn something and he has to apply it. When it’s time to give him the ball again, I’m going to give it to him, whether it’s the top of the lineup or the middle of the lineup, if it’s in the eighth inning, he’s going to get it. He’s going to learn how to do it, because that’s what we expect out of him and he’s got to learn how to expect that of himself.”
Zeferjahn, 27, hasn’t even been in the majors for a year yet. The Angels acquired him last July in the Luis Garcia trade, and he made his major league debut on Aug. 25.
Zeferjahn hadn’t really struggled in his brief time in the majors until this recent stretch. Even this might look much different if left fielder Taylor Ward had gotten a good jump on a fly ball and helped Zeferjahn escape with a scoreless inning on Wednesday in San Diego.
“I think that I can still go out there and compete with the best in the world sometimes, when I don’t have my best stuff,” Zeferjahn said. “Obviously, I was on a hot streak to start, where I had my best stuff. Everything was going my way. When you get punched in the face, it’s how am I going to react?”
Zeferjahn said he’s been “tweaking a few things,” including his cutter, which is his best pitch. Zeferjahn said an inability to get the cutter in the strike zone has burned him.
“I can take the bad from this week, but I think I can go out there with anyone,” Zeferjahn said. “I’m just gonna take that and go with it. Take this whole week, refresh and go to Sacramento ready to go.”
BULLPEN MOVES
The Angels placed right-hander José Fermin on the injured list because of an elbow impingement, and they recalled veteran right-hander Hunter Strickland.
Washington said Fermin’s injury is not serious.
“We didn’t do an MRI, but we checked it out,” Washington said. “We just need to give him a couple days. Since he was going to miss a couple days, we decided to give him a little bit longer period, because he’s young. They feel things. They’re scared when they’re young, but we did everything for him to calm him down. We decided we’re just going to give him some time. He’ll be back.”
Strickland, 36, rejoins the Angels after posting a 3.31 ERA with them in the majors last season. He went unsigned for most of the winter before inking a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers. After they released him, the Angels re-signed him to a minor league deal.
“It feels like home,” Strickland said. “It’s great. I’m excited.”
Strickland had allowed one run in three innings with Triple-A Salt Lake.
In order to create a spot for Strickland on the 40-man roster, the Angels designated first baseman Ryan Noda for assignment.
NOTES
Right-hander Hector Neris was better a day after leaving a game because of a blister, Washington said. Washington said Neris would likely be unavailable anyway on Sunday because he’d pitched on Friday and Saturday. …
Right-hander Robert Stephenson (rehab from Tommy John surgery) pitched a scoreless inning in his second rehab outing at Class-A Inland Empire on Saturday night. Stephenson struck out Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, who was playing for Rancho Cucamonga on a rehab assignment.
UP NEXT
Angels (RHP José Soriano, 2-4, 3.46) at Athletics (RHP J.T. Ginn, 1-1, 4.61), Monday, 7:05 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network West, 830 AM