Reid Detmers gave the Angels everything they needed for seven innings. The offense, once again, gave him almost nothing.
That combination held Los Angeles in a tight game against the Yankees for most of the night, but New York finally cracked it open in the 10th and walked away with a 6-3 win. It was the Angels’ second straight loss to the Yankees, and it came after another start from Detmers that should have been enough to keep them in it.
The left-hander was sharp in the featured matchup with Cam Schlittler, and the two starters matched each other nearly pitch for pitch. Detmers worked seven innings and allowed one run. Schlittler went eight and gave up one as well.
New York struck first in the fourth. Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger opened the inning with back-to-back singles, and after Detmers turned a double play, Amed Rosario doubled in Bellinger to put the Yankees ahead 1-0.
Los Angeles finally answered in the seventh, and Vaughn Grissom did the damage with one swing. His solo homer tied the game at 1-1, and that was the last real push either club managed in regulation.
From there, the night turned into extra innings and then into the kind of collapse that has become too familiar for the Angels. In the 10th, Luke Murphy couldn’t stop the bleeding.
Jose Caballero started the rally with a single, Jazz Chisolm Jr. drew a walk, and the bases were loaded. Murphy came within an out of escaping, but Austin Wells ripped a single to drive in two, Bellinger added another RBI single, and then Trent Grisham and Ben Rice each followed with RBI singles of their own.
By the time the inning ended, the Yankees had turned a 1-1 game into a 6-1 lead.
The Angels scratched back a little in the bottom of the 10th. Moises Ballasteros homered to score ghost runner Wade Meckler, trimming the final margin to 6-3.
The result gave the Yankees the series win and pushed the Angels to their ninth loss in their last 10 games. It also sent Los Angeles back to the AL West basement after the A’s beat the Texas Rangers.
Detmers’ line was the bright spot again. His ERA dropped to 3.44, and the rotation continues to give the Angels a chance. Vaughn Grissom has had some moments in the middle of the order, though the source of the bigger problem remains clear: the bottom of the lineup is strictly Triple-A quality, and the results are starting to look exactly like that.
In Other News...
Angels Face A Walbert Urea Decision That Could Break A Pattern
With the Angels in the middle of a sale from Arte Moreno to Stan Kroenke, there is a fresh chance to think differently about how the franchise handles its own pitching. For years, the club has been reluctant to lock up homegrown starting arms long term, a pattern that has left a familiar sense of what might have been whenever a young pitcher reached another level in Anaheim.
Walbert Urea is now at the center of that conversation after a strong season has put him in position to be more than just the latest promising starter to pass through. If the Angels want this transition to mean something beyond new ownership paperwork, considering an extension for Urea would be one way to signal that the old habits do not have to define the next era. [Read more 🡒]
Angels Just Reignited A Painful Debate With Another Trade
The Angels trade-deadline selloff sent Jo Adell and Nathaniel Lowe to Cleveland, and it did more than thin out the roster for the stretch run. It also reopened an old conversation around how much offensive upside Los Angeles left on the table, especially with Adell now landing in a situation where the Guardians are clearly counting on his bat to help reshape their lineup.
Adells early returns with Cleveland have only sharpened that debate, since he has looked more productive there than he did in Anaheim. For Angels fans, the deal is another reminder of how often the club has had to weigh immediate roster needs against the possibility that a change of scenery might unlock more from a player, and this one figures to linger as the Guardians try to squeeze more offense out of a group that needed a boost. [Read more 🡒]
Angel Fans Can Already See Where This Stadium Saga Could Go
A recent report briefly sent Angels fans down a familiar road of stadium speculation, only for a spokesperson to walk it back and say Stan Kroenkes company is not ready to move forward on a new ballpark right now. Even so, the interest alone was enough to revive the bigger question around Angel Stadium, where every hint of a replacement plan tends to set off thoughts about what could come next for the ballpark and the land around it.
Kroenkes name carries plenty of weight because of how he has handled sports ownership and real estate elsewhere, from SoFi Stadium to Dicks Sporting Goods Park. That history is why even a corrected report still feels notable: it suggests a possible long-term model for the Angels stadium future, but any actual plan remains uncertain and could still be years away from becoming real. [Read more 🡒]