O's game blog: The series with the Angels begins

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Orioles three-city road trip has advanced to city No. 2. They are in Anaheim tonight to start a three-game weekend series with the Angels.

The Orioles (4-9) started this trip losing three of four in Oakland and lost 6-4 on Thursday afternoon. Austin Hays drove in two runs with a double and a single, Rougned Odor added an RBI single, and Ryan McKenna added a sac fly.

It was yet another close game for the Orioles, who are 2-6 in games decided by two runs or less, going 1-3 in both one- and two-run games. The O’s offense has produced just 28 runs (2.15 per game) and they’ve scored two or less nine times.

The Angels (8-5) are in first place in the American League West as this series begins. They lead Oakland by a half-game, are one game ahead of Seattle and 1 ½ up on Houston. They won the last two games of a series with Houston that ended Wednesday by 7-2 and 6-0 scores. The Angels have won five of six and seven of their last nine games.

Their offense has been real strong, averaging 5.0 runs per game, and the Angels have 16 homers, tied for the AL lead. They also lead the league in steals with 11 but also lead by a big margin in caught stealing with eight. The Angels rank third in the AL in batting (.253), and second in on-base percentage (.333), slugging (.423) and OPS (.756).

But Los Angeles doesn’t rank up there in the pitching department. They have a team ERA of 4.14, which is 14^th in the AL, a rotation ERA of 3.97 to rank ninth and bullpen ERA of 4.34 to rank 13^th. The Angels staff has allowed 17 homers, second-most in the league.

O’s lefty Bruce Zimmermann (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will make his third start. Over the first two, he pitched four scoreless in the home opener against the Brewers and then five scoreless in Sunday’s 5-0 home win over the Yankees. Both of his starts ended in shutout victories. He threw 66 pitches in his first outing and 75 the last time.

Opponent hitters this year are just 7-for-33 against batting a collective .212/.297/.273 with a .570 OPS.

In the two games, Zimmermann has used his fastball 40 percent of the time with an average velocity of 90.3 mph. His changeup usage, which was 26 percent last season, is up to 34 percent now with the curveball at 16 percent and slider 10 percent.

Lefty Reid Detmers (0-0, 8.59 ERA) gets the start for the home team. Detmers, 22, was the No. 10 overall draft pick in 2020 out of Louisville and signed for a bonus of $4.67 million. He didn’t pitch in 2020 on the farm – no one did, of course – and threw just 62 innings in the minors last year.

In his first outing of 2022, he gave up two runs in four innings on 75 pitches versus Houston. Then last Friday at Texas, he allowed five runs in 3 1/3 innings on 65 pitches. In seven career starts in the bigs, he is 1-3 with a 7.71 ERA. Lefty batters are just 1-for-9 against him thus far, but right-handed batters are hitting .381 (8-for-21) with an OPS of 1.173.

Mike Trout, a three-time MVP and eight-time Silver Slugger, returns to the Angels lineup tonight, batting second and in center field. He has not played since Sunday for the Angels. He was dealing with a bruised hand after being hit by a pitch. In nine games, Trout is slashing .267/.405/.567 with a .972 OPS.