Reid Detmers hit a milestone the Angels hadn’t seen from a left-hander in 26 years, and the night still ended with Anaheim walking off happy.
Detmers became just the 12th Angels pitcher to reach 200 strikeouts in a season, finishing with 204 after punching out five Twins hitters on Saturday. He’s the first lefty in club history to get there since Chuck Finley in 1999, and the first Angels pitcher to clear the mark since Shohei Ohtani’s 219 strikeouts in 2022.
The Angels turned the night into a 6-5 win over Minnesota at Angel Stadium, with Vaughn Grissom tying it with a solo homer in the ninth and Christian Moore ending it with a walk-off RBI single with two outs in the 11th. The victory was the Angels’ fourth in six games, and they now need to go 3-4 over their final seven games to avoid 100 losses for the first time in franchise history.
For Detmers, the box score was a mixed bag. He allowed four runs on six hits over five innings and did not factor into the decision, snapping a run of seven straight quality starts. That stretch had come with an MLB-best 1.65 ERA in 11 outings since the All-Star break, so this was a rougher night than he’s been used to.
Even so, the bigger picture still stands out. In his first season back in the rotation after working exclusively out of the bullpen last year, the 27-year-old has a 3.47 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP and 46 walks across 179 innings. He’s expected to make one more start next week in Seattle.
Detmers is one of eight pitchers in the majors with at least 200 strikeouts this season, and even after allowing four runs for the first time since he gave up five on July 9, he still owns a 2.05 ERA with 81 strikeouts in 70 1/3 innings since the All-Star break. The Angels’ decision not to move him at the Trade Deadline looks even better now, especially with Detmers under team control for two more seasons. That gives them a top-of-the-rotation arm they can count on well beyond this year.
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