The Los Angeles Angels are looking to make up some ground in the AL West with a series win over the Athletics but lost the series opener 9-3 Friday.
The Los Angeles Angels may have lost its series opener to the Athletics 9-3, but the franchise won by firing general manager Perry Minasian prior to the game.
Minasian has put the Angels in a tough spot since being hired in Nov. 2020 and refused to spend money on talent that could help the club and put it back in the postseason. John Mozeliak is taking over as interim general manager.
The Angels took the first lead of the game in the fourth inning after second baseman Donovan Walton drove in a run with a single, but the Athletics immediately answered in the fifth inning by scoring seven runs.
Angels right-hander Walbert Urena was shelled for the first time this season, allowing seven runs on six hits and two walks while striking out five. The 22-year-old has been outstanding for Los Angeles since joining the starting rotation but didn’t have his best stuff this time around.
A’s righty J.T. Ginn produced a quality start, tossing six innings and allowing three runs on eight hits and one walk while fanning five to earn his sixth win of the year. The other two runs scored by the Halos came on a two-run home run by right fielder Jo Adell.
Los Angeles’ offense showed up but couldn’t score enough runs. The Angels need to continue swinging the bats well and stacking wins to stay in the wild card picture, and the team will turn to lefty strikeout specialist Reid Detmers to even up the series against Athletics righty Jack Perkins.
Detmers is 3-5 with a 3.93 ERA, 1.05 WHIP (16th) and 104 strikeouts (13th) to 28 walks through 16 starts (94 innings). The 26-year-old will have some outings where he gets hit hard and allows some runs, but he also has outings where he barely gives anything up and strikes out 10 or more.
He last worked against this A’s team and while he pitched six innings, he allowed five runs on six hits and four walks while fanning just four in a no-decision. Detmers was expected to stay put at the trade deadline because Minasian didn’t want to move its top young players, but that could be off the table with Mozeliak at the helm.
Perkins has had a rough season so far, going 2-3 with a 6.26 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and 57 strikeouts to 16 walks through 21 games (four starts, 46 innings). He has made four consecutive starts and faced Detmers his last time out, allowing four runs on four hits and two walks while punching out eight over five innings of work.
First pitch is at 6:38 p.m. PDT on MLB.TV and regional sports networks.
