Reid Detmers pitched six strong innings, and Brandon Drury and Niko Kavadas hit home runs to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 6-2 win over the struggling Minnesota Twins on Monday night.
Detmers (4-6) had his second solid start in a row after spending three months at Triple-A Salt Lake. The 25-year-old left-hander gave up five hits and struck out eight, including the last three batters he faced.
This was his first win since April 12 against Boston, after starting the season with a 3-0 record.
He had previously struck out 10 in six innings during a no-decision against the Los Angeles Dodgers last Tuesday, his first game back since June 1, following a demotion to the minors due to inconsistent performances.
“You always want to finish strong, especially these last starts I have left,” Detmers said. “Obviously give it your all, but trying to get my name back out there, trying to make a statement and show everybody who I am.”
Drury hit his fourth home run of the season, a two-run blast, in the third inning. Kavadas followed with his third home run of the season, also a two-run shot, in the sixth inning.
Kyle Farmer homered for the Twins, who struck out 12 times and lost their fourth consecutive game. Minnesota has managed only 13 runs in their last six losses out of seven games.
The Twins are 6-15 in their last 21 games but are still in third place in the American League wild-card standings, three games ahead of Detroit and Seattle, who were idle.
“There’s times where you’re going to struggle for a moment at the plate, and right now unfortunately it’s contagious for us. But hopefully we’ll snap out of it tomorrow,” said Royce Lewis, who went 0 for 4 and is hitless in his last 20 at-bats.
David Festa (2-6) gave up a two-run single to Nolan Schanuel in the first inning and a 459-foot home run to Drury in the third inning, putting the Angels ahead 4-0. Festa was removed after four innings.
“The game was a little bit out of our reach pretty much from the start and we were never able to get that moment where we were able to pull ourselves back. But we need to string together those good at-bats,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.
“It feels like we’re piecemealing it a little bit. We’ve got to do more as a collective group and get the three, four, five good at-bats in a row.”
