ANAHEIM — The Angels had everything heading toward a much-needed, well-played victory, and then it all got away.
Left-hander Reid Detmers entered in the eighth inning with a two-run lead and he retired only one of the five hitters he faced, sending the Angels on their way to a 10-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Thursday night.
The Angels (12-18) have lost six in a row.
“It’s been hard,” Detmers said. “Obviously, it’s not ideal, but we got a good clubhouse. We’re staying tight with each other. We’re trying to look at all the positives and go out there and have fun each and every night. Obviously, we’re trying to win. That’s the goal every night, to go out there and win. But things just aren’t going our way right now. But that’s part of baseball. We got off to a hot start this year, and now we’re in a little slump, and we’re gonna work. We’ll get out of it.”
The Angels were 8-4, but they’ve since lost 14 of 18 games.
They seemed on their way to snapping the streak when they had a 4-2 lead in the eighth. Right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn, who had pitched a perfect seventh, gave up a single to Gleyber Torres to start the inning.
Detmers then entered to face left-handed hitting No. 3 hitter Riley Greene, who is much worse against left-handed pitchers.
Detmers didn’t get some borderline calls early in the at-bat and then he walked him. He gave up a single to Andy Ibañez, driving in a run. After a groundout, Detmers gave up a game-tying single to Zach McKinstry and then a three-run homer to Dillon Dingler.
All of the hits Detmers allowed came when he had two strikes on the hitter. Each time he left a pitch right over the middle.
“Just didn’t have my best stuff,” Detmers said. “That’s how the game is. Obviously, in that situation you want to put guys away, especially coming in the eighth with a runner at first and no outs. Trying to get punch outs. I just couldn’t get my slider where I wanted to or the heater. Pretty simple.”
The nightmare came a day after Detmers entered in a tie game and gave up five runs, although shoddy defense open the floodgates in that game.
Detmers saw his ERA rise from 2.57 to 8.16 in two outings.
His performance spoiled a day in which starter Yusei Kikuchi was better, allowing two runs in five innings. It was a much better outing than when he gave up four runs on nine hits last weekend in Minnesota.
Manager Ron Washington said before the game that they had some “tweaks” to Kikuchi’s “thought process” to help get him back on track.
While Kikuchi was more effective, the problem was that he wasn’t efficient. He was at 93 pitches after five, which opened the door to the Angels’ bullpen.
With Ben Joyce on the injured list, the Angels have only three of the relievers they planned on holding leads – Brock Burke, Ryan Zeferjahn and Kenley Jansen – but they had four innings to cover.
Burke and Zeferjahn retired six of the seven batters they faced, but the game blew up when Washington tried to use Detmers as a bridge to Jansen.
Offensively, the Angels showed some encouraging signs.
They had more hits (eight) than strikeouts (six) for the second straight game.
After getting the scoring started with a Logan O’Hoppe solo home run (his ninth of the season), they actually hit a homer with someone on base. Jorge Soler put the Angels ahead 3-2 with a two-run homer in the third. It was Soler’s sixth homer of the season, and just their second homer with a runner on base since April 10.
The Angels put together a rally with four hits and a walk in the fourth inning, but that still could have been a bigger inning if they hadn’t hit into a double play.
Still, at that point they had a 4-2 lead, the first time since April 18 they were up by more than one run.
“It’s a long season,” Kikuchi said through his interpreter. “Throughout a season you’re gonna go through these lulls sometimes. The first couple weeks, we were one of the best teams in baseball. As long as we believe, I think we’ll be fine. Tomorrow’s a new day, so looking forward to it.”