Rangers rough up Reid Detmers to defeat Angels 7-2

Reid Detmers might have set the bar impossibly high when he threw a no-hitter in his 11th big league start May 10. The Angels left-hander has found it difficult to produce a worthy encore.

Detmers was roughed up for five runs and five hits, including two homers, in six innings of a 7-2 loss to the Texas Rangers in front of 22,950 at Angel Stadium on Wednesday night, his second start since his gem against Tampa Bay.

In his first since the no-hitter, he gave up three runs and three hits, including two homers, in 3 2/3 innings of a 10-5 loss at Texas on May 17.

Detmers, a 22-year-old rookie, threw 108 pitches in the no-hitter, which also was his first complete game in college or the pros. He was not as crisp while throwing 61 pitches against the Rangers on May 17 and 73 pitches Wednesday.

Could Detmers be feeling any residual effects, either mentally or physically, from the no-hitter?

“Absolutely not,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. “I really thought he was in a good way tonight. He just got bit by homers.”

Detmers threw a first-pitch fastball down the middle to Mitch Garver to start the fourth inning. The Rangers designated hitter lined the 91-mph pitch over the left-field wall for a homer and a 2-1 lead.

Three batters later, Detmers hung a 72-mph curve on an 0-and-1 pitch to Kole Calhoun. The former Angels outfielder drove a two-run homer to right for a 4-1 lead. Calhoun also singled off Detmers to spark a two-run rally in the seventh and has three hits in five at-bats, two of them homers, against Detmers this season.

“Right now, Calhoun has my number,” Detmers said. “I thought I did a little better job this week than I did last week making pitches, but I left a ball over the plate to Calhoun and made a bad pitch to Garver, and they got ahold of them.”

The Angels backed Detmers with 12 runs and 18 hits in the no-hitter against the Rays. They were nowhere near as supportive Wednesday, mustering only six hits against Rangers starter Glenn Otto and relievers Dennis Santana, Brock Burke and Joe Barlow.

Mike Trout, who entered the game with a major league-leading 1.129 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and ranked second in homers (12) and third in runs (35), struck out four times for only the eighth time in his career.

The three-time American League most valuable player went down swinging against Otto in the first (92-mph sinker) and third (96-mph fastball) innings, looking against Santana (97-mph fastball) in the sixth and swinging against Burke (96-mph fastball) in the eighth.

“We got behind and they pitched well,” Maddon said. “We got no good looks at Otto. None. They really dominated with their pitching tonight.”

The Rangers took a 1-0 lead in the first when Marcus Semien singled, stole second, took third on Corey Seager’s grounder to second and scored on Garver’s sacrifice fly to left.

The Angels evened the score in the bottom of the first when Shohei Ohtani walked, stole second and scored on Anthony Rendon’s two-out single to left.

Ohtani slipped when he stepped on top — instead of cutting the inside corner — of the third-base bag, and he stumbled as he reached the third-base coach’s box, but he managed to stay on his feet to make it 1-1.

Detmers retired six of seven batters in the second and third innings, but Garver and Calhoun tagged him for homers in the fourth.

Texas tacked on two insurance runs in the seventh, a rally Calhoun sparked with a leadoff single. Right-hander Mike Mayers replaced Detmers, but he walked Brad Miller and gave up a single to Eli White to load the bases. Semien hit a sacrifice fly to center, and Seager hit an RBI single to right to make it 6-1.

Calhoun’s double and Miller’s RBI single pushed the Rangers’ lead to 7-1 in the eighth. The Angels scored on singles by Jared Walsh and Rendon and Luis Rengifo’s RBI groundout in the ninth.

Angels right fielder Taylor Ward sat out his fourth straight game because of a nerve injury in his neck and right shoulder, but he was available to pinch-hit for the second straight game. Ward still feels some discomfort throwing and won’t be able to play right field until that dissipates.

The team has considered giving the right-handed-hitting Ward some starts at designated hitter, but Maddon said Ohtani, who will pitch against Toronto on Thursday night, will also hit against Blue Jays left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu.

“Shohei loves to hit when he pitches,” Maddon said. “He really believes he can influence the game, and I think he can, too. So until Ward is really ready to come back or Shohei absolutely needs a day off, we’ll just stay with it the way it is.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.