SEATTLE -- The Angels made a smart call before the 2026 season when they moved left-hander Reid Detmers back into the rotation, and he finished the year by showing exactly why.
Detmers was brilliant Friday night in a 7-5 win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park, throwing six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts while allowing just two hits and two walks. The outing capped a breakout season for the 27-year-old and helped put the Angels in position to avoid losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history, needing to win only one of their final two games.
The numbers from Detmers’ season tell the story. He wrapped up at 3.36 ERA with 211 strikeouts and 48 walks over 185 innings, setting a career high with 32 starts. He also became the first Angels left-hander to reach 200 strikeouts in a season since Chuck Finley in 1999, though he still finished 7-8 because the offense often didn’t give him much support.
His best stretch came late. Over his final 13 starts, Detmers posted a 1.89 second-half ERA, fourth best in MLB behind only AL Cy Young favorite Cam Schlittler (1.80), Jesus Luzardo (1.84) and Drew Rasmussen (1.86). In that span, he piled up 88 strikeouts in 76 1/3 innings.
A big part of that leap came under interim pitching coach Tim Levaque, with Detmers using TrackMan in bullpen sessions to get a better read on his pitches. The workload only adds to the impression he made this season: after throwing 63 2/3 innings in relief in 2025, he still made every scheduled start this year despite a jump of more than 120 innings.
That kind of season gives the Angels plenty to feel good about, especially with Detmers under team control for two more years. He had been a possible trade candidate before the deadline, but the Angels kept him, and now they have a pair of frontline starters in Detmers and Walbert Ureña, who turned in a rookie season with a 2.97 ERA in 148 1/3 innings.
Against Seattle, Detmers never let the Mariners get comfortable. The only hits he allowed were a one-out single to Dominic Canzone in the fourth and a leadoff single to Michael Arroyo in the fifth. He also got major help from center fielder Bryce Teodosio, who made several strong defensive plays, including a leaping catch at the wall to rob Canzone of a home run in the first.
The Angels handed Detmers an early lead when Wade Meckler tripled in the first and scored on a wild pitch. Meckler finished 4-for-5 and came up a homer shy of the cycle, while Christian Moore added a three-run homer in the sixth and Zach Neto hit a solo shot in the seventh. It was the second straight night with a big extra-base hit for Moore, and Neto reached a career high with his 27th home run before adding an RBI double later in the game.
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