The Los Angeles Angels will send Reid Detmers to the mound as the Phillies look to get back on track.
The Los Angeles Angels are facing the Philadelphia Phillies tonight, and it’s Reid Detmers time. That means one of the best pitchers in baseball lately against one of the toughest lineups in the league, which should make for quite a show.
Detmers has been brilliant lately, pure and simple. He’ll come into this game with a streak of 14 straight scoreless innings in his last two starts, and he gave up just one run in six innings in the start before that against the Texas Rangers. The middle start in that trio came against the Kansas City Royals, as Detmers pitched a two-hitter for eight innings that also included 11 strikeouts.
Team-wise, though, Detmers will really be behind the eight ball in this one. The Angels have lost four straight coming into this one, and they were just swept by the Cleveland Guardians, who have good starting pitching but aren’t exacly an offensive powerhouse.
The Halos are tied with the Colorado Rockies or the worst record in baseball, and they’re trying to climb over the Athletics and out of the AL West. The Angels can’t get out of their own way when it comes to finding ways to lose, but this is the one game they might genuinely have a chance to win.
The Phillies, meanwhile, have to be licking their collective chops coming into Anaheim. They just had a tough weekend up in the Pacific Northwest against the Seattle Mariners, who took two of three this week to slow down the Philadelphia juggernaut.
Before that the Phils had a nine-game winning streak, and now they get to try to pad their record against what almost amounts to a Triple-A lineup right now.
Andrew Painter will be on the mound for the Phillies, and this should be something of a get-right game for the 23-year old right-hander. Painter is currently pitching to an ERA of 6.04, although his last start was impressive, as he limited the St. Louis Cardinals to one run in seven innings while giving up five hits to go with eight strikeouts in a 12-3 win for the Phils.
There are exactly two hitters to worry about in the Angels lineup right now: Zach Neto and Mike Trout. Neto is dangerous, and he seems to be on a stats drive now that he’s made it through the deadline without being moved. Trout has cooled off considerably since his hot start, but he’s also dangerous, especially as a mistake hitter, but the odds here overwhelmingly favor Philadelphia once you get past the pitching matchup.
