ANAHEIM — Ryan Johnson made the pitch that was the difference between a good outing and a bad one.
With the bases loaded and Detroit Tigers’ All-Star Dillon Dingler at the plate in the fifth inning, the Angels right-hander threw a sweeper to get the strikeout.
His 91st and final pitch of the game was the biggest one, and the Angels then scored a run to take the lead, on their way to a 3-2 victory over the Tigers on Sunday afternoon.
While the Angels didn’t do much with their opportunities at the plate, their pitchers all came through, starting with Johnson and continuing with relievers Samy Natera Jr., Chase Silseth, Sam Bachman and Ryan Zeferjahn.
It was noteworthy that manager Kurt Suzuki went with Zeferjahn in the ninth instead of Kirby Yates, who blew Friday’s game. Zeferjahn entered with a two-run lead and gave up a homer to Riley Greene before recording the save.
Suzuki did not declare Zeferjahn as his new “closer.”
“For us, we’re going to mix and match and see what gives us the best opportunities to to be successful on any given night,” Suzuki said. “Not naming one guy. We’ve just got guys and tell them to be ready at all times. When we call your name, be ready to go.”
Johnson got the victory with the second best of his seven starts. In the six starts since he’s been back in the rotation, he has a 3.60 ERA.
“I feel like I’ve been able to get into a good routine and figure out what I want to do in between starts that makes me feel good, start getting comfortable on the mound, and able to have a long enough stretch to where it’s like, ‘OK, you’re able to see the results, trust the process,’” Johnson said. “This works whenever I throw these pitches in the right locations.”
In previous outings, his problem has often been one inning that got away from him, ruining his other good work.
This time, he was on the way to having that inning in the fifth. With two outs and the bases empty in a 1-1 game, Johnson gave up an infield single. He then walked two consecutive hitters to load the bases for Dingler.
Johnson’s first pitch to Dingler was a sinker low. His second pitch was also called a ball, but catcher Tyler Heineman challenged and it was reversed. The critical flip from 2-and-0 to 1-and-1 gave Johnson a boost.
“That was a huge,” Suzuki said. “A great challenge by him. We were talking about that in the dugout. That was a huge challenge and changed the whole at-bat.”
Three pitches later, the count was 2-and-2 when Johnson threw a sweeper out of the zone, and Dingler waved his bat through it. Johnson yelled and clenched his fist as he walked off the mound.
“Just execute this pitch and we can get out of it,” Johnson said. “It never felt like I was out of it. Even with the two walks, still felt like I was able to command the ball well.”
Suzuki said getting through that situation will help Johnson in the long-run.
“You saw how fired up he was,” Suzuki said. “I think that was a good experience. For him to learn how to get out of those situations and to be able to pitch himself out of that was great.”
From there, the bullpen did its job, helping the Angels (39-61) snap their four-game losing streak.
The bullpen was working without much margin for error because the hitters made the least of their nine hits and five walks. The Angels were 3 for 17 with runners in scoring position.
The Angels should have had more runs than they did.
Vaughn Grissom led off the second with a double, and he scored on Oswald Peraza’s infield hit.
In the third, the Angels had runners at first and second with no outs and didn’t score. In the fifth, they loaded the bases with no outs and managed only one run, on a Jorge Soler groundout.
They manufactured a run in the sixth when Peraza led off with a single, stole second, went to third on a ground ball and scored on a Zach Neto single.
In the seventh, they also stranded two runners.