Angels beaten by Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez in 9th

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Jul 29, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM — A night after the Angels intentionally walked Yordan Alvarez to load the bases in the ninth inning, they pitched to him.

Neither decision worked out.

Left-hander Mitch Farris threw one pitch to the Houston Astros slugger, and he ripped it into center field for an RBI single, snapping a tie and sending the Angels to a 3-2 loss on Tuesday night.

The Astros had runners at the corners, and pitching coach Mike Maddux came out to talk to Farris. He threw a fastball just below the zone, and Alvarez went down and hammered it 107 mph to put his team ahead.

A night earlier, with right-hander Sam Bachman on the mound and runners at first and second, the Angels walked Alvarez to have Bachman pitch to the right-handed Isaac Paredes. Bachman hit Paredes, forcing in the tying run.

The Angels (42-66) have lost the first two games of the series against the Astros.

This loss came on a night when Reid Detmers made his final start before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

The next time he pitches, the rumors will have stopped. Either he’ll know he’s finishing the season with the Angels, or he’ll be wearing a new uniform.

“I try not to read anything,” Detmers said earlier this month. “Obviously, you see stuff all the time. Try staying off social media. It’s just one of those things. It is what it is. Obviously, I’m here now and I’m doing my best I can to help this team win and get to where we want to be and that’s all my focus is. It’s out of your control.”

In the meantime, it’s difficult not to suspect that the way the Angels have used Detmers over the past few weeks has been with an eye toward protecting him.

Detmers came out after just 84 pitches in five innings on Tuesday night. He had allowed only two runs, and he struck out three in the fifth.

Detmers has not thrown more than 86 pitches in any of his three starts since the All-Star break, even though he hasn’t allowed more than two runs in any of the games.

After struggling for a couple of starts before the break, Detmers has a 1.65 ERA since. For the season, he has a 4.03 ERA, with 145 strikeouts in 125 innings.

The relatively quick hook on Detmers left the Angels with at least four innings to fill, with a short-handed bullpen. Right-handers Sam Bachman, Ryan Zeferjahn and Chase Silseth had each pitched the previous two days, so presumably none of them were available.

Manager Kurt Suzuki used two pitchers in each of the next two innings, with right-hander José Fermin and left-hander Brent Suter combining to get through the sixth, and right-hander Kirby Yates and left-hander Samy Natera Jr. splitting the seventh.

Natera then pitched a perfect eighth, with two strikeouts.

The pitchers didn’t get much support from the hitters, who didn’t have a hit after the fifth inning.

Vaughn Grissom drove in a run with a two-out single in the third inning. In the fifth, Mike Trout singled and came all the way around on Jorge Soler’s bloop double down the left-field line.

Soler had two singles and a walk, one of his most productive games in weeks. The Angels would like to be able to trade Soler by the deadline, but his value is low because he’s had a down season.