SAN FRANCISCO — When the Angels sent struggling Reid Detmers to Triple-A, they simply shifted from one problem to another in the rotation.
Left-hander José Suarez has had two opportunities to fill some of the innings vacated by Detmers, and he failed both times.
Suarez gave up five runs while recording only three outs in the Angels’ 13-6 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. Suarez allowed four runs in 2-2/3 innings when he started on Tuesday in Arizona.
Afterward, Suarez inexplicably shrugged off the poor performance.
“I feel like I made pretty good pitches,” Suarez said through an interpreter. “They put good contact on them. I can’t control that.”
Although manager Ron Washington said Suarez had trouble with his location, Suarez didn’t agree.
“What I saw is the hard contact they made were on pitches out of the zone,” he said.
Four of the five hits that Suarez allowed were on pitches inside the strike zone, three of them over the middle of the plate and one over the inner half. He also walked a batter and hit a batter.
“He’s just not locating his pitches,” Washington said. “If you don’t locate your pitches and you’ve got big league hitters up there, that’s what happens.”
Suarez now has an 8.15 ERA, with his two most recent performances wiping away any optimistic hopes from the stretch of acceptable relief appearances leading up to this week.
Adding to the Angels troubles, infielder Luis Rengifo left the game in the middle of the Giants’ nine-run fourth inning when he suffered a left wrist contusion. Rengifo said he expects to be able to play on Monday, and manager Ron Washington said he was “day to day.”
It was a bad day for Rengifo and Suarez, who have been friends and teammates since they grew up in the same town in Venezuela.
While Rengifo has been in the midst of his best season, Suarez has been enduring a nightmare since last season. The Angels (28-43) have so far refused to part ways with the 26-year-old because he’s out of options and they felt he could turn it around.
The Angels gave him a start on Tuesday in Arizona, hoping he could make it through five innings, and he didn’t last three. This time, the Angels started right-hander Ben Joyce as the opener. After he got through two scoreless innings, they gave the ball to Suarez, with a 2-0 lead, in the third.
Suarez worked around two hits to post a scoreless inning. In the fourth, though, he didn’t get an out. He walked a batter and hit one, allowing doubles to the other three.
Four runs scored while Suarez was in the game and a fifth came home after Hunter Strickland replaced him. The Giants took a 9-2 lead in the fourth inning and led 13-2 before the Angels scored four times in the ninth.
The poor performance by Suarez raises the question of what the Angels will do the next time they need a fifth starter. Washington said after the game that he hadn’t had a chance to talk to anyone about what they would do going forward.
“I’m not going to stand here and speculate,” Washington said. “We’ll see where it goes.”
Because they have off days on Thursday and next Sunday, the next time they need a fifth starter is June 28.
Related Articles
Ron Washington expects production from Brandon Drury, Miguel Sanó when they return
Logan O’Hoppe’s monster homer helps Angels edge Giants
Angels’ Mickey Moniak shakes season-long slump with better discipline
Angels explode for early 8-run lead, hang on to beat Giants
Angels’ Zach Neto has adjusted the way he uses his leg kick during hot streak
The Angels have only one off day from June 24 through July 14, so they will definitely need to come up with a better solution than this for the fifth spot.
Detmers has pitched twice at Triple-A, getting better results the second time. If he shows even more progress in his next start, he could be an option to come back by then.
The Angels also could turn to right-hander Chase Silseth, who on Sunday gave up three runs in five innings in the second Triple-A start of his rehab assignment. Right-hander Zach Plesac has also pitched well in each of his last two starts at Triple-A.
The positive development for Angels pitching was Joyce’s start. Joyce is now using a two-seam fastball, and he threw it with 21 of his 42 pitches. He struck out three, walked one and hit a batter.
“I think what it brings to his overall arsenal is he won’t use so many pitches to get out of innings,” Washington said. “If you perfect that pitch, you can have some quick innings where he throw five, six, seven, eight, nine pitches. That’s what it’s going to do for him once he’s perfected it.”