Braves Bash Angels Again with Detmers on the Mound
Jack Haslett
Host · Writer
ANAHEIM, Calif. – For the second game in a row, the Los Angeles Angels suffered an ugly loss at the hands of the Atlanta Braves, this time falling 8-2 on Wednesday.
While their 7-2 loss on Tuesday at least had the excitement of a bench-clearing brawl initiated by Jorge Soler and Braves pitcher Reynaldo López to bolster it, Wednesday’s putdown was simply an onslaught of runs the Angels had no answer for.
The bulk of Atlanta’s production came against Angels starter Reid Detmers, who has had a mostly solid start to the season. He gave up five runs, four earned, in 4.1 innings of work while giving up two walks and five hits, one of which was a two-run home run by Matt Olson in the top of the third, and striking out four. It was his shortest outing of the season so far.
Errors and Runs
The lone unearned run on Detmers’ line also came in the top of the third. Mauricio Dubon hit a routine ground ball to Zach Neto that with two outs, should have ended the inning. However, Neto’s throw to first sailed over Nolan Schanuel’s head, allowing Dubon to reach safely and Austin Riley to score.
Detmers has found his way back into the starting rotation this season after a stint in the bullpen in 2025, and the results have been good before Wednesday. Prior to pitching against the Braves, Detmers had allowed just three runs across two starts and struck out a combined 13.
Detmers left the game with one runner on in the fifth in exchange for Ryan Zeferjahn, who struggled to put runners away himself.
Zeferjahn walked the first batter he faced and gave up a two-run double to Dubon right after. The Braves put one more run on the board in the sixth courtesy of a Drake Baldwin single to more than seal the game.
Missed Opportunities
Los Angeles had a chance to break the game open early on, but failed to execute.
Soler led off the second inning with his second home run in as many games, a solo shot to left center field. Soon after that, the Angels had the bases loaded with no one out.
Oswald Peraza struck out. Zach Neto flew out to right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. on a ball that was just too short to allow Jo Adell to tag up from third.
That brought up Mike Trout, who’s been looking much more like his old self to start the season. Trout grounded out to Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies to end the inning.
The Angels will embark on a seven-game road trip against the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees, wearing the sting of back-to-back losses and possibly without one of their core power hitters in Soler, should a suspension appeal not go his way.
