ANAHEIM — The best part of the Angels’ 2-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night was what didn’t happen.
Zach Neto didn’t break anything.
The Angels shortstop was hit on the left wrist by a pitch in the third inning, and eventually came out of the game after attempting to hit in the fifth. X-rays were negative, though. Neto, indisputably the most important player on the team, was laughing and joking with his teammates and reporters after the game, clearly relieved that he had dodged a bullet.
“I feel pretty good,” Neto said. “Just sore right now. A little weak, but that’s usually what happens when you get hit.”
The Angels are off on Thursday, and Neto said he would try to play on Friday night.
“You know me, I’m gonna try to do everything I can to make sure I’m ready for Friday,” Neto said.
Neto’s relief further boosted the mood around the clubhouse after the Angels (61-66) put together a solid game to avoid a sweep.
Starter Yusei Kikuchi had his best performance in months, allowing one run in seven innings.
The score was tied, 1-1, in the bottom of the eighth, when No. 9 hitter Bryce Teodosio snapped an 0-for-15 slump with a double into left field. Teodosio advanced to third on a wild pitch. An out later, Luis Rengifo drove him in with a bloop single.
Right-hander Luis Garcia handled the bottom of the ninth, because closer Kenley Jansen is dealing with a rib injury.
The rally came too late for Kikuchi to get a much-deserved victory. He sliced through the Reds’ lineup on just 88 pitches. That was fewer than it took him to get through four innings in a frustrating outing against the A’s last week.
That was the eighth time in a nine-start span when Kikuchi failed to get through the sixth inning, which prompted him to do a deep dive into his pitching strategy.
Kikuchi said the problem was that his pitch selection had become predictable, so he spent the past few days talking to Angels hitters and hitting coaches trying to see what he needed to tweak.
What he ended up with was a change in the way he used his fastball, getting it more often to both sides of the plate.
“I think being able to command both sides of plate with your heater goes a long way in this game,” catcher Travis d’Arnaud said. “I think if you only do one side of the plate, hitters can get a little more comfortable. So for him to be able to go both sides of plate with the heater opens up everything else even more than they’ve already been open. And it showed today.”
He also made some changes to his slider, which is his most used pitch. Although pitch tracking showed that Kikuchi replaced most of his sliders with curveballs on Wednesday, he said he simply changed the way he threw the slider – with less velocity and more depth – so it looked more like a curve.
“I just think throwing it where he wanted it,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “Whatever the pitch mix is, it’s gonna depend on the opponent and how he feels on a certain day. But the ability to throw it in the box and command the zone the way he wanted to was probably more of the key than even the mix itself.”
Kikuchi acknowledged that he will need to continue adjusting if hitters change their approach based on what he did in this game.
“Obviously, there’s going to be more data, and other teams are going to adjust to me as well,” Kikuchi said through his interpreter. “It’s just like a continuous chess match. I just have to see how the game goes and make adjustments.”
Kikuchi gave up seven hits, but he didn’t walk anyone. He struck out only four.
He gave up back-to-back hits to start the second, escaping with a strikeout and a double play. In the sixth, the first two hitters of the inning reached on hits, the second of which was a pop-up that dropped between Teodosio and right fielder Jo Adell because of a miscommunication. Kikuchi picked up his teammates, retiring the next three on a fly ball and two ground balls.