Reid Detmers and Jo Adell help Angels complete Cub sweep – Orange County Register

ANAHEIM — Better than fruitcake, more versatile than an ugly sweater and more desired than pajamas, Angels left-hander Reid Detmers instead gave his teammates Thursday one of his best outings of the season.

During a “Christmas in June” promotion, Detmers gave up a run in 5 1/3 innings, Jo Adell hit a home run on his first at bat of the season and the Angels finished a merry sweep of three games with a 3-1 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Success, and Detmers’ role in it, was indispensable. The Angels had just returned home from a four-game series in Houston when they were outscored by the Astros while losing three times. They had lost seven of 10 when the Cubs came to town.

In his 11th start of the season, Detmers (1-5) picked up a win for the first time, allowing one run on five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. It was undertones of a May 19 outing against the Minnesota Twins, when he struck out 12 in 5-2/3 innings of a no-decision game in a game the Angels ended up winning, 5- 4.

With the release, Detmers’ ERA fell to 4.79, the lowest since it was 4.15 after allowing two earned runs in an April 23 start against the Kansas City Royals. It was also the first time Detmers had allowed fewer than two earned runs in an all-season outing.

Without a wild pitch that got Miguel Amaya moving to second base in the second inning, followed by a brace from Trey Mancini RBI, Detmers could have delivered their first scoreless outing since Aug. 26 of last season.

The Angels offense erased the deficit late in the second inning. Adell hit the second pitch he saw from Cubs southpaw Drew Smyly deep to left field in a recorded explosion from 451 feet. It was his first major league homer since Sept. 30 of last season and came after hitting 18 homers in the first two months at Triple-A Salt Lake.

Luis Rengifo and Chad Wallach followed Adell with singles and Taylor Ward added a sacrificial fly to score Rengifo for a 2-1 advantage.

The Angels made it 3-1 in the sixth inning after rookie Zach Neto scored a single and moved up to second on a walk from Ward. He scored on a double steal with Ward when Cubs catcher Yan Gomes missed his pitch at second in an attempt to cut Ward down.

It was a dominant streak by the Angels bullpen, which went 11-1/3 scoreless innings. Chris Devenski followed Detmers with 1-1/3 innings, Jose Soriano pitched a scoreless eighth and Carlos Estevez pitched the ninth for his 16th save of 16 chances. Devenski hasn’t given up a run in his last eight appearances (10 innings).

More to come on this story.