Angels drop 3rd straight game as bats slump

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Apr 21, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM — The Angels’ bats have gone cold lately.

After a torrid stretch of games on the last trip and in the first game of this homestand, the Angels have been held to four runs in their last three games, including a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night.

The Angels (11-13) have lost three in a row, despite solid starting pitching in each game.

Left-hander Reid Detmers left the mound in the seventh inning with only three runs on the board, but a fourth was charged to him after he was gone.

A rough offensive night was no surprise, considering the Angels were facing Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease.

The Angels struck out 12 times against Cease. That was the bad news. The good news was that they worked him hard enough to get him out of the game with 110 pitches after five innings.

In the first inning, slumping Nolan Schanuel poked a two-out double down the left field line. Jorge Soler then knocked him in with a single. Soler had been 1 for 23 with 13 strikeouts in his career against Cease.

Two innings later, Zach Neto walked and Mike Trout reached on an infield single, and then both runners moved up on a double steal. Schanuel drove in Neto with a sacrifice fly.

The Angels then had four cracks at the Toronto bullpen. They didn’t get a hit until the ninth inning, when they were down by three. They struck out six more times, finishing the night with 18 punchouts.

Detmers took the loss on a night when he wasn’t at his best but kept the Angels in the game.

In five starts this season, Detmers has a 4.08 ERA. He’s had one bad start, two outstanding ones and two middling outings.

Detmers got into a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, because of two soft singles and an error by shortstop Zach Neto. He escaped the jam by striking out Lenyn Sosa on a slider.

In the third, Detmers hung a changeup to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who belted it 430 feet to straightaway center, for a two-run homer.

The homer followed Detmers’ first walk of the night. His second walk, to the only batter he faced in the seventh inning, also cost him.

That runner scored with reliever Chase Silseth on the mound.

The Angels might have been able to prevent that run if left fielder Josh Lowe had made a firmer throw in after fielding a Nathan Lukes single. Myles Straw, who had been at second, kept tearing all the way around third as the ball floated into the infield.

A Logan O’Hoppe passed ball in the top of the ninth led to another Toronto run.

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