back to top

With Reid Detmers on mound, Angels get another look at future vs. Twins

angelsrising.info

Reid Detmers will be on the mound for the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif., when they face the Minnesota Twins — another game in the club’s efforts to develop Detmers into a top-of-the-rotation pitcher.

Detmers, a left-hander, started five games in his first season last year, but he began this season in the starting rotation. He threw a no-hitter on May 10 against the Tampa Bay Rays, but after going winless in the six starts that followed, he was sent to Triple-A Salt Lake to make adjustments.

The biggest change was altering his arm angle when throwing his slider, creating more velocity with the pitch. Since returning to the big league club on July 8, he’s been the type of pitcher the Angels hoped they were getting when they selected him in the first round (10th overall pick) in the 2020 draft.

In five starts since his return, he’s been outstanding, going 2-0 with a 1.16 ERA (31 innings pitched, four earned runs) with 38 strikeouts. He is 4-3 overall this season, with a 3.44 ERA.

In his most recent start last Saturday, the Seattle Mariners had two runners on with two outs in the seventh inning with Sam Haggerty due up and Detmers at 100 pitches.

In many cases, that would spell the end of the day for the starting pitcher, but Angels interim manager Phil Nevin stuck with Detmers, who struck out Haggerty on a full-count slider to end the inning.

“That was huge,” Detmers said. “I wanted to finish the seventh. I didn’t know if the pitch count was going to let me. But I got out of it and got some swings and misses, so it felt good.”

Nevin acknowledged that the decision to keep Detmers in the game at that point was more a nod to the future than winning the game at hand.

“To me it was a learning moment for him,” Nevin said. “I want him to learn to pitch out of those jams. We consider him someone who can pitch at the front end of a rotation, and those kind of pitchers do that.

“They reach back when their pitch count is up and get big outs. We saw it in his no-hitter, and we’re seeing it more and more each time out. We feel like he’s improving each time.”

Detmers, 23, has never faced the Twins.

Right-hander Dylan Bundy (6-5, 5.01), who pitched for the Angels in 2020-21, will make his 20th start of the season for Minnesota and will try to follow Tyler Mahle’s six scoreless innings in Friday’s 4-0 win with a solid performance of his own.

Bundy, though, is winless in his past three starts and hasn’t lasted more than five innings in any of them.

He has been hit-or-miss in his starts this season, 10 times giving up two earned runs or less, but four times giving up five earned runs or more.

“Commanding the ball and getting some of the pitches I need to get down in the zone, getting them down, especially with two strikes — that’s kind of been a weakness,” Bundy, 29, said.

Bundy is 1-2 with a 7.15 ERA in five career games (four starts) against the Angels, all while pitching for the Baltimore Orioles.


www.yardbarker.com

Latest articles

A’s Mark Kotsay discusses future of several

The 2022 season has been a disappointing one for A’s second baseman/outfielder Tony Kemp, who’s...

White Sox look for offense in series finale...

If the Chicago White Sox are to salvage a split of their four-game series against...

Shohei Ohtani takes mound for Angels against A’s

Shohei Ohtani survived the trade deadline. Next up, the Los Angeles Angels' star will take...

Rangers fire manager Chris Woodward

The Rangers made a change atop the dugout, announcing the dismissal of manager Chris Woodward...
angelsrising.info

More like this

Assessing the Chicago White Sox’s offseason outlook

Aside from a new manager, the White Sox don’t seem destined for a major...

Offseason outlook for the Los Angeles Angels

Despite the continued excellence of Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, the Angels had another...

Previewing the 2022-23 free agent class: Designated hitter

Obviously, any hitter is capable of serving as a DH. Many of the players...

World Series Houston Astros vs. Philadelphia

The Phillies are red-hot, but the Astros are even hotter. Houston has yet to...

Mariners could be in position to deal from

Going into next year, the Mariners have considerable depth in their rotation. Luis Castillo...

Guardians have some tough middle infield decisions to make

Two months ago, I wrote about Andres Gimenez’s 2022 breakout and how it was a...