The Angels trip to Texas has been one to forget to say the least. Heading into Wednesdays series finale against the Rangers, the Halos were outscored 42-11 over their previous four games. In fact, they only scored 2 runs on Wednesday as their offensive woes continued, but it was enough to win. It is a miracle the Angels found a way to go 2-4 on the Texas road-trip considering they got outscored 42-13 over 6 games. Nonetheless, despite all of the disappointment throughout the road trip, Reid Detmers had a stellar bounce back performance and Shohei Ohtani hit his 42nd home run of the season as the Angels found a way to avoid a sweep. 

Reid Detmers shines in dominant start 

In one of the most unexpected performances of the season, Reid Detmers took a no-hitter into the 8th inning against the best offense in the American League. Detmers had previously given up 14 earned runs over his last two starts and many people believed that a demotion to the minor leagues could help him turn it around. As of right now, Detmers won’t need that demotion as he put together one of the best performances of his young career and fell just short of his 2nd career no-hitter. 

Detmers threw 7.1 innings striking out 5, walking 4, and giving up just 1 hit over that span. Walks and control had been an issue for Detmers recently as he’s walked a career high 48 batter so far this season. Even though he walked 4 guys on Wednesday, Detmers was able to get ahead of hitters pretty frequently which resulted in a ton of success. With how defeated the Angels have looked over the last two days, a dominant start like this was needed to put the team back on track as they head home to Angel Stadium.

Shohei Ohtani dazzles with 3 hit performance

Shohei Ohtani hit his 42nd home run of the season in the 1st inning of Wednesdays game. It looked like he had just golfed it and gotten under a fastball resulting in a fly out, but it had actually turned into a 437 foot bomb, showing just how strong Ohtani is. Ohtani’s production didn’t stop there as he legged out two infield singles over the course of the game showing off his blazing speed as well. 

Is it a coincidence that Ohtani has hit a home run in the only games the Angels have won on the Texas road trip? Absolutely not, considering only Mike Moustakas has consistently been hitting well besides Ohtani over the last week. Both of the Angels wins on the road trip featured lackluster offensive performances, but Ohtani was able to almost single-handedly lead the Halos to victory in both of them because of the superb pitching performances from Chase Silseth (on Sunday) and Detmers (on Wednesday). Ohtani now boasts an average of .306 with 42 home runs, 85 RBI’s, and an OPS of 1.071 on the season.

Carlos Estevez saves the day 

On Wednesday, Carlos Estevez came in to pitch the 9th inning and almost immediately gave up two consecutive hits. The Rangers now had the winning run at the plate with two runners on and no outs. Estevez had already thrown over 15 pitches in the inning without recording an out and things were looking bleak for the All-Star. Eztevez pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning on Sunday against the Astros for the save in a crucial game, but had still blown two out of his last five save opportunities entering Wednesdays game.

Despite all the pressure and thoughts that were probably going on inside of his head after giving up two hits to start the inning, Estevez locked in and got the next batter to strikeout. He then gave up a scorching fly ball to Travis Jankowski that was hit to the warning track and caught by Hunter Renfroe (which by the way would have been a home run in just 1 MLB stadium, Angel Stadium oddly enough) before striking out Leody Taveras to end the game and secure the win. It wasn’t pretty, but Estevez is now 26/28 on save opportunities this season and remains the team’s go to guy in the 9th inning. 

The Angels, 60-62 on the season now, head home for a 3-game series against the Rays beginning Friday night at the Big A. Tyler Anderson is set to take to pitch for the Halos while the Rays pitcher is still TBD. First pitch is scheduled for 6:38 p.m. PT Friday.