ANAHEIM — It was all going wrong for Reid Detmers. Again.
The Angels were hanging on to a two-run lead on Monday night at Fenway Park, and Detmers was standing on the mound, with the bases loaded. He had allowed a bunt single, a bloop single and a walk on a 3-and-2 pitch that was in the strike zone.
What happened next was the biggest indication of how far Detmers has come in a short time.
He got out of it, with a routine ground ball.
“Taking it one pitch at a time is huge,” Detmers said the next day. “Maybe in the past, I got a little ahead of myself and tried to do too much.”
Detmers has been through a tumultuous start to his career, from the highs of a no-hitter to the lows of a demotion to Triple-A to the transition to the bullpen.
Though it all, those who were trying to get him on the right track often suggested that his mental approach was more of a problem than anything physical. So when Detmers was able to overcome all that bad luck and still post a zero, in the intimidating atmosphere of Fenway Park, it was an encouraging sign.
Detmers is still carrying a 6.04 ERA, which is the result of a nightmarish three-game stretch from April 30 to May 7. In those games, a combination of bad luck and bad pitches led to him allowing 12 runs while facing 13 batters.
“Just three unfortunate games,” Detmers said. “The Baseball Gods can get you. I just felt like there’s a lot of things I can’t control. I made a lot of good pitches those outings, and they just got hits. There’s nothing you can do once the ball leaves your hand. At the time, it’s hard to process. Like, what is going on? What’s wrong with the stuff?
“At the end of the day, just try to forget about it as best you can, and I felt like I did a pretty good job of that.”
Since that stretch, Detmers has rebounded to allow one run in 11 innings, with 15 strikeouts. He picked up the first save of his career on Tuesday, getting three outs with a one-run lead while not letting the automatic runner to move from second base.
Detmers said he hasn’t changed much. In fact, he was actually pitching well before that three-game blowup, with a 2.57 ERA in his first nine games.
A closer analysis of those three games does reveal that he was fairly unlucky. Six of the 11 hits he allowed had exit velocities under 90 mph.
“Ever since he had his rough time, he’s been chopping that mountain down,” Manager Ron Washington said.
Detmers, 25, has been so good out of the bullpen that he’s presenting a dilemma for the Angels.
Should they put him back in the rotation?
Washington said this week that the Angels “haven’t had that discussion.” Detmers said: “I haven’t thought about it one time.”
Angels fans have certainly thought about it, because starters Jack Kochanowicz and Kyle Hendricks have identical 5.34 ERAs.
Kochanowicz is 24 and a part of the Angels’ long-term plan. He’s shown flashes of his talent, with a couple of dominant starts, but his walk rate has tripled since last season.
Hendricks is 35 and trying to reclaim his spot as a productive major league starter. The Angels signed him for just $2.5 million, so clearly their expectations were low. Hendricks has also pitched out of the bullpen before.
A case can be made that either pitcher should be replaced by Detmers. Detmers was worked as a starter in spring training, but since Opening Day he hasn’t thrown more than 43 pitches or 2⅔ innings. Detmers estimated he could throw three innings now if he were asked to start, “but I have no idea.”
If the Angels did want to ease Detmers back into the rotation, they would likely do so with another long reliever available to piggy-back behind him until he’s built up to at least five innings. The alternative would be to send him to Triple-A for a few starts.
The Angels also could choose to keep him in the bullpen, taking advantage of the value he’s brought to that role. He played a significant part in both of the Angels’ victories this week against the Red Sox.
“There’s going to be some inconsistency, because he’s not used to coming out of the (bullpen), even though he’s been down there for (two months),” Washington said. “It’s still different. But the thing I’ve loved about it is he’s putting up zeros, and that’s what we need.”
As a reliever, Detmers has recently seen his fastball velocity go up slightly, which has helped that become a better put-away pitch than when he was a starter. Detmers said that’s just the result of getting a “decent feel” as he’s gotten into the season, rather than being an indication of his stuff playing up out of the bullpen.
Detmers has also scrapped his changeup while pitching in relief, sticking to the fastball, slider and curveball.
“Once you get over three pitches out of the bullpen, you can get confused a little bit,” he said. “Probably the less pitches yo have out of the ’pen, the better.”
The question now is whether Detmers is pitching better because he’s a reliever, or whether he’s pitching well enough that he should return to being a starter.
Washington said starting is still the long-range role for Detmers.
“It’s definitely in his future,” he said. “I don’t know if that future is soon. I don’t know where that future is, but it’s certainly in his future.”
UP NEXT
Mariners (TBD) at Angels (RHP Kyle Hendricks, 2-6, 5.34 ERA), Friday, 6:38 p.m., FDSN West, 830 AM