BALTIMORE — In the third game of the season, the Angels finally showed what their pitchers can do.
After allowing 24 runs in the first two games, the Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-1, on Sunday to salvage the final game of the season-opening series.
Left-hander Reid Detmers worked five strong innings and then right-hander José Soriano delivered three electric innings, cracking 100 mph with 12 of his 34 pitches. Closer Carlos Estévez worked the ninth for his first save of the year. They combined to allow three singles.
Detmers gave up one run, striking out seven. He dominated outside of a shaky second inning, when the Orioles scored a run on two walks, a hit batter and an infield hit.
Otherwise, the Orioles didn’t get a runner to second base against Detmers.
Detmers struck out Cedric Mullins on a curve that was so sharp Mullins actually ducked before the ball caught the inside corner of the zone.
His new slider was also working. Detmers said in spring training that he changed his slider to have slightly less velocity, which he figured would make it tougher for hitters.
Detmers was also able to use his fastball effectively. The Orioles whiffed on 12 of their 22 swings against his fastball.
Manager Ron Washington pulled Detmers after 88 pitches in five innings, setting up an opportunity to use Soriano.
The Angels tried Soriano as a starter this spring. He pitched well enough to continue as a starter, but the Angels didn’t have a spot for him in the big league rotation, so they will instead use him as a multi-inning reliever.
Soriano breezed through the sixth inning on 10 pitches, but in the seventh he gave up a hit and then a walk, with ball four coming on a pitch timer violation. As the top of the Orioles order came to the plate, Washington visited Soriano for a pep talk. Soriano got out of the inning with a ground ball and a fly ball.
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Soriano worked around his own error — when he mishandled the flip from first baseman Nolan Schanuel — and a walk in the eighth inning.
Estévez then handled the final three outs, locking up the victory.
The Angels pitched well enough to win with the four runs they scored in the first two innings.
Taylor Ward blasted a two-run homer in the first, his second homer in as many games. In the second, the Angels parlayed three singles and a throwing error by catcher Brian McCann into two runs.
More to come on this story.
