Los Angeles Angels left-hander Reid Detmers will try to build on one of the best starts of his career when he takes the mound Monday night against the defending American League champion Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of a three-game series in Anaheim, Calif.
Detmers (1-1, 3.57 ERA) comes off a 7-1 victory over the Yankees in New York last Tuesday. He allowed one run on four hits and no walks over seven innings while striking out nine, including reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge twice.
Detmers, who had a scheduled Sunday start against San Diego pushed back a day to recuperate, left after throwing 99 pitches, 69 for strikes.
“He pitched great,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki told the Orange County Register. “Using all his pitches, mixing it up. I thought (catcher Logan O’Hoppe) did a great job mixing it up with that. He pitched to all quadrants of the strike zone and attacked and kept them on their heels. It was awesome.”
“It was one of those games where everything felt good,” Detmers said. “Heater command was pretty good, but the changeup was really good. I was able to get the changeup in the zone, get some swings and misses, and it kind of freed everything else up.”
Four of his nine strikeouts came on changeups that hovered around 85 mph.
“That changeup is the best I’ve seen from him,” said teammate Mike Trout, who got a good view of it from center field.
Detmers is 1-1 with a 4.76 ERA in six career appearances (three starts) against Toronto. He will face a Blue Jays team that has struggled offensively but erupted for eight first-inning runs Sunday in a 10-4 victory at Arizona.
Toronto, which had scored a total of seven runs in four straight losses heading into the contest, started the game with eight straight batters reaching base, tying a franchise record accomplished twice before.
The first seven batters all reached base with hits, including Kazuma Okamoto’s two-run double and Nathan Lukes’ bases-loaded double to cap the outburst. Toronto had been just 1-for-20 with the bases loaded.
“That’s what we were missing, stringing the hits together and then hitting with runners in scoring position at that time,” Lukes said. “It was huge. It’s that little nudge that we needed, and we’ve just got to use it going forward.”
Toronto manager John Schneider credited a better approach at the plate for the big offensive turnaround.
“I feel like for the past week or so, there have been pitchers pitching us deliberately on the edges and us not making great quality of contact,” Schneider said. “Today, I thought we did a really good job of forcing (Arizona starter Ryne Nelson) into the middle of the zone, whether it was early or later in the count. That’s what we’re talking about, having a little bit of intent when it is where you can handle it.”
Jays right-hander Dylan Cease (0-0, 1.74) is 1-2 with a 3.49 ERA in seven career starts against Los Angeles, and has struggled in four career starts at Angel Stadium, compiling a 0-2 record and 4.98 ERA.
–Field Level Media
