ANAHEIM — There have been nights of domination for Reid Detmers, with others that failed to meet expectations, and evenings like Friday when a hybrid version emerged.
Detmers managed to work around constant trouble without enough reward from the offense and the Angels saw their four-game winning streak come to an end with a 6-2 loss to the Miami Marlins.
The evening did afford the Angels the opportunity for top pitching prospect Sam Bachman to make his major league debut, with the right-hander striking out the side in his first career inning and recording four total strikeouts over two innings.
Far from at his best, which his 10 hits allowed would attest, Detmers (0-4) still held the Marlins to three runs over five-plus high-traffic innings. Miami lefty Jesus Luzardo was simply better in the opener of a three-game series.
Detmers did have a pair of perfect innings, with the initial one coming in the first frame. But the Marlins put four hitters on base in the second inning, while only scoring once on a Jean Segura single to center field.
In the third inning, the Marlins made it 2-0 on Jorge Soler’s mammoth home run to center field, his 16th of the season. It was also the 10th home run Soler has hit this year in support of Luzardo, who has made 11 starts.
The Angels worked their way halfway back in the fifth inning when Chad Wallach singled, went to second on a Luzardo wild pitch and scored on a two-out single from Mike Trout. Shohei Ohtani followed by striking out.
The Marlins chased Detmers with four consecutive singles to open the sixth, including an RBI hit from Nick Fortes. But Angels right-hander Jacob Webb escaped further damage when he got Jonathan Davis to ground into a force out at home, struck out Jon Berti and retired Soler on a force out.
The Angels looked inspired when they added another run in the sixth on a Brandon Drury home run to right-center field to cut the deficit to 3-2. But the Marlins used the short porch in right-center to take a 5-2 lead on a two-run home run for Bryan De La Cruz off Webb.
Detmers had two walks to go along with five strikeouts on Friday, far from his outing on May 19 against the Minnesota Twins when he had a season-high 12 strikeouts over 5-2/3 innings. Luzardo (4-3) gave up one run on seven hits in his five innings of work with a walk and seven strikeouts.
Bachman came on in the seventh inning and struck out his first batter, Fortes. After a single from Jonathan Davis and a walk by Joey Wendle, he struck out Soler before major league hitting leader Luis Arraez singled to center on a low pitch just above the plate. Bachman ended the threat when he struck out Garrett Cooper.
Bachman gave up four total hits in his first two innings with two walks to go along with his first four strikeouts.
More to come on this story.
