Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Sat, Aug 15, the Los Angeles Angels hosted the Kansas City Royals in the second game of a three-game series at Angel Stadium. The Halos’ offensive bats continued to hit well over the past couple of games, with them scoring seven in a shutout win over the Texas Rangers and scoring six in a game that they barely lost by one run against Kansas City on Friday night. Now, on Saturday night, Reid Detmers was taking the mound and was seeking to prevent himself from making American League history in a bad way. That being surpassing Alex Cobb and Kutter Crawford for the all-time lead in most consecutive home starts by a starting pitcher without a win. Dating back to Apr 2024, Detmers hadn’t won a game at the Big A as a starter and with a good stretch of pitching over the past few months, the wins have not followed for Detmers, who unfortunately does not receive much run support from his teammates on the offensive end. The Halos would try to give their stellar southpaw some runs to work with when they faced Randy Dobnak as the starter for the Royals.

To start the game, Detmers had a solid first few innings without giving up a hit to the Kansas City lineup. Meanwhile, the Angels had a couple of different chances to score, but they failed in both instances, including on a two-out double by Adam Frazier when Moisés Ballesteros was at first and Ballesteros had to hold up at third and Tyler Heineman grounded out on the next pitch to end the bottom of the second inning.

Detmers kept his pitch count low while Dobnak’s was a little bit higher through a few innings. Kansas City got their first hit against Detmers on a single by Jac Caglianone, who stole second base with two outs. Detmers would get Salvador Perez to fly out to end the top of the fourth. Detmers gave up another hit in the fifth inning to Michael Massey, but he was able to get a double-play against Starling Marte to end the inning. Detmers continued pitching with no run support as Dobnak kept neutralizing the Halos’ bats.

The game was still scoreless in the sixth inning, but the Angels had a major chance to score in the bottom half of the inning. Nolan Schanuel got his second hit of the game and Zach Neto walked against Dobnak with one out. Ballesteros came up and unfortunately flew out, with Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro making a pitching change in subbing out Dobnak and putting in Craig Kimbrel, who was on his third different team of this 2026 season and he had faced the Halos with his two previous teams in the New York Mets and Tampa Bay Rays earlier in the year. Kimbrel faced Josh Lowe with two outs and got a fly out to end the inning. Another missed chance for the Angels, who couldn’t provide any run support to Detmers for their lives.

Thankfully, Detmers’ pitch count was in the 60s entering the seventh inning, where he struck out Bobby Witt Jr, Caglianone and Perez in outstanding fashion. In the bottom of the seventh, Denzer Guzman hit a line drive out to center field, but he was robbed of an extra base hit by a stellar diving catch by Tyler Tolbert. Frazier hit a single in the next at-bat against Kimbrel, who would have been charged with a run if not for Tolbert’s terrific catch. Unfortunately, Frazier got caught stealing second base by Kimbrel, who turned around and threw the ball to Witt in a big tag-out. On the very next pitch, Heineman popped out to Witt to end the inning with the score still 0-0 through seven innings.

Detmers returned out to pitch in the top of the eighth as it was his likely final inning of the night. Detmers got Isaac Collins to line out to Mike Trout in center field, Massey to fly out to Lowe, and Marte to strike out. In the bottom of the eighth, the Halos had one last chance to give Detmers at least one run of support to put him in line for a much-desired win. Nate Pearson was the new relief pitcher for the Royals as he faced the top third of the Angels order. Wade Meckler led off and drew a walk on five pitches, with him being pinch-run for by Jose Siri. Trout came up looking to be clutch, but he popped out to Caglianone in foul territory for the first out of the inning. Schanuel was up next and after he took a first pitch strike, Siri stole second base successfully. Now with a runner in scoring position, all Schanuel needed to do was to hit a ball out to the outfield and if it dropped in, a run would likely score. On the next pitch, Pearson threw a fastball that Schanuel hit on a bounce and it went off the glove of a diving Caglianone into right field. Siri sprinted around third base and scored for a big clutch run. It was an amazing RBI single by Schanuel, who had four RBIs in the series opener against Kansas City. Detmers was certainly pleased to see one run score, but he wanted the lead to be a bit bigger for the closer who would come in to relieve him in the top of the ninth. There would be no more add-on runs though as Neto struck out and Ballesteros grounded out to end the inning.

With a one-run lead, Ben Joyce entered to pitch in the top of the ninth in looking to secure the win for Detmers and the Halos. Joyce was looking for his second save in as many appearances and he started out by striking out pinch-hitter Carter Jensen on a 102.9 mph fastball. Then, Joyce made quick work of another pinch-hitter in John Rave by getting him to pop out to Frazier. Finally, Joyce faced Nick Loftin and got him to strike out on an 87 mph slider to end the game. The Angels had won 1-0 and Reid Detmers had secured his first win in Anaheim as a starting pitcher in more than two and a half seasons. An incredible award for a pitcher who was willing to go the distance and lock down the opposition. With only two hits surrendered, this was one of Detmers’ finest performances in his big league career, as he joined himself from May 24, John Lackey in July 2006 and Mike Witt at the end of the 1984 season as Halo hurlers to pitch eight or more innings in a game while giving up two or fewer hits, striking out ten-plus batters and allowing no walks. Detmers earned his fourth win of the 2026 season and did it with his brilliant pitch arsenal of sliders, fastballs and “Hell’s Rainbow” curveballs. Detmers was as fantastic as he could be on a Saturday night game that barely went over two hours.

With 49 wins now on the season, the Halos look to conclude this homestand with a series win over the Royals and seeking their fifth win in this seven-game stretch at home. After that finale, the Angels will go on their Lone Star State road trip to play against the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers for two three-game series. The Halos then return home for a nine-game homestand against playoff-contending teams in the Cleveland Guardians, Philadelphia Phillies, and New York Yankees leading into the final month of the season. For now, the Halos are seeking to avoid their worst record in franchise history and first 100-loss season as well. This pitching masterpiece by Detmers might go a long way towards avoiding those futility marks.