The Los Angeles Angels will continue to tinker with a bullpen that has struggled for most of the season when they open a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners beginning Friday night in Anaheim, Calif.
Angels relievers have allowed 37 home runs, most in the majors, and their cumulative ERA is 5.75, third worst in MLB.
The club does have bright spots coming out of the bullpen. One is closer Kenley Jansen, who is 12-for-12 in save opportunities. Another, at least recently, has been left-hander Reid Detmers.
Detmers threw a no-hitter as a rookie in 2022 and was expected to be a mainstay in the rotation, but struggles since resulted in a minor league demotion in 2024, while this season he was relegated to the bullpen.
He had one horrible three-game stretch (April 30-May 7) during which he recorded only one out, allowing 12 runs. But since then, Detmers has allowed just one run in his past 11 innings.
That includes his first career save on Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox, allowing him to join Nolan Ryan and Mike Witt as the only Angels pitchers to throw a no-hitter and record a save since 1969, when saves became an official stat.
Detmers has been so good that the Angels could consider putting him back in the rotation once he’s been stretched out in terms of innings and increases his potential pitch count. Angels manager Ron Washington, however, said the topic has not been discussed.
For now, Detmers seems to have adapted to his new role. He scrapped his changeup altogether, sticking to throwing his fastball, slider and curve.
“Once you get over three pitches out of the bullpen, you can get confused a little bit,” he said. “Probably the less pitches you have out of the ‘pen, the better.”
If Detmers does return to the rotation, it could be at the expense of right-hander Kyle Hendricks (2-6, 5.34 ERA), who is scheduled to start Friday against the Mariners. Hendricks, 35, signed a one-year deal for $2.5 million with the Angels last November after 11 seasons with the Chicago Cubs.
Hendricks has made one career start against Seattle, getting a no-decision after allowing one run and three hits in six innings in a 5-1 Chicago win in September 2019.
Right-hander Bryce Miller (2-4, 5.36 ERA) will make his 10th start of the season for Seattle, trying to help the Mariners get a needed victory. They have lost three in a row and six of the past eight games.
One of Miller’s two wins this season came against the Angels on April 29, when he shut them out on two hits over five innings in the 5-3 game. He is 2-1 with a 1.30 ERA in five career starts against the Angels.
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh enters the series leading the majors with 24 home runs, his most recent coming Thursday in a 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. He surpassed the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, who has 23 homers.
Raleigh is being asked if he would participate in the home run derby at the All-Star game on July 15 in Atlanta, if invited, and the answer is an emphatic yes.
What would make it unusual is that only 10 switch hitters have participated in the derby since its inception in 1985, and only one — Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman — actually hit from both sides in the derby competition, according to MLB.com.
“We’ve got to get there first, and from there, we’d decide,” Raleigh said when asked if he would hit from both sides of the plate. Sixteen of Raleigh’s home runs this season have come off of right-handed pitchers.
–Field Level Media
