The Los Angeles Angels were not able to even up their series against the Texas Rangers on Sunday as they ended up dropping three of the four games.
Reid Detmers did everything he could to help the Angels earn the victory as he pitched seven innings and gave up just two runs (one earned) on three hits while striking out 12 and walking three.
However, a late-inning bullpen collapse in the ninth inning allowed the Rangers to score three runs and win 5-2.
But despite the loss, Detmers joined some rare company when he pitched an immaculate inning in the second inning. Detmers struck out Ezequiel Duran, Kole Calhoun and Charlie Culberson on just nine pitches, which made him the third Angels pitcher in history to accomplish that feat.
The last to pull that off was Garrett Richards, which came on June 4, 2014 against the Houston Astros, and prior to that, Nolan Ryan was the only other pitcher to do it, which happened on July 9, 1972 against the Boston Red Sox.
Earlier in the season, Detmers completed another historic accomplishment when he threw the 12th no-hitter in Angels history and the 316th in MLB history.
With a no-hitter and immaculate inning in the same season, Detmers became the third pitcher in MLB history to accomplish both in the same year, and it was the fifth time it has been done.
It was first done by Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax in 1962. Koufax also pulled it off in 1963 and 1964. After that, no pitcher was able to accomplish both in the same season until Mike Fiers did it in 2015.
Detmers has had a lot of mixed results this season, which caused the Angels to option him to Triple-A at one point during the season, but he has continued to show flashes of brilliance, which is surely encouraging to the organization.
Taylor Ward believes his bat speed is improving
The Angels were one of the hottest teams in baseball for the first two months of the 2022 regular season, and a big reason for that was the emergence of Taylor Ward.
The 28-year-old was putting up numbers that rivaled Mike Trout before cooling off in June.
One explanation for the drop-off in production was a stinger he suffered on May 20 after crashing into a wall while trying to make a catch. Since then, Ward has hit only three home runs over his last 42 games. That’s compared to 10 home runs he hit in his first 35 games.
Ward believes the injury has negatively impacted his bat speed and only recently became aware of it, but he believes it is improving and the results should start to reflect that.