La Angels were beaten 14-6 by the Athletics on Tuesday in Anaheim, a loss built around a six-run third inning that sent Reid Detmers to a career-high eight runs allowed. Mike Trout homered in the defeat and reached 600 runs scored at Angel Stadium, but the night belonged to a team that could not stop the damage once it started.
The loss was the Angels' seventh in their past eight games and their 22nd in 28 since an 11-10 start, a slide that has dragged them to 17-32. It was also another blow in a pattern that has been hard to shake: the Angels had lost 14 straight games when their opponent scored first, and Tuesday's game fit that script early when the Athletics seized control in the third.
Detmers worked 5⅔ innings and gave up eight hits and two walks while striking out eight. He said he left a couple of pitches over the plate and got a lot of soft contact, adding that it had been the story of the year so far because opponents kept putting balls in play and finding holes. The third inning was especially rough, with all six Athletics runs coming with two outs.
Kurt Suzuki said a couple of Detmers' pitches in that inning may have been offspeed and up in the zone, and he said the ball simply snuck over the infield and in front of the outfielders. Suzuki added that Detmers minimized hard contact for most of the outing, but called it a tough inning. The Athletics did not need a clean rally to do the damage; they scored 12 of their runs with two outs.
Trout gave the Angels one bright spot, hitting his team-best 12th home run of the season. It was his 43rd career home run against the Athletics, tying him with Rafael Palmeiro and Alex Rodriguez for the most since the franchise moved to Oakland in 1968. The shot also carried him to 600 runs scored at Angel Stadium, a mark described as the greatest by any run scorer in the ballpark's history.
The Angels had also managed more than two runs for the first time in eight games and only the second time in their past 11 contests, but that did little to change the shape of the night. They loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth inning and never turned the moment into a full rally, leaving another reminder that one big swing from Trout is not enough to cover for a staff that keeps spending too much time under pressure.
Detmers said there are going to be ups and downs in pitching and hitting, and that nothing in this game is easy or smooth. For the Angels, the next test is not just whether they can win again; it is whether they can stop a start, hold an inning and turn one good night into something that lasts.
