Red Sox Notes: Boston’s Bats Were Silenced In Loss To Angels

The Red Sox’s five-game winning streak was snapped by the Angels when Los Angeles defeated Boston 2-1 on Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

Reid Detmers struck out 12 of the 21 Boston batters he faced in six innings of work. He allowed one run on three hits and threw 69.1% of his pitches for strikes (65-of-94 pitches).

“He threw a good fastball, man,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I think the closest guy we faced with that stuff in the last two months was that kid in Detroit, (Tarik) Skubal. (Detmers) is always good against us, but I think he was able to land the breaking ball and he made some adjustments.

“(…) He was able to land the breaking ball early on and expand with the fastball, and when we were on the fastball, he gave us his breaking ball and was able to throw for strikes, and you gotta tip your hat to him. He’s one of those guys that the more he pitches, the better it is because he understands where to use his stuff. And the fastball was electric.”

After Detmers left the game, the Angels bullpen of Adam Cimber, Matt Moore and Carlos Estevez didn’t allow a hit over the final three innings to secure the win for their starter.

Garrett Whitlock pitched just 4 1/3 innings. He struck out four, walked four, and gave up four hits without surrendering a run in the no-decision.

“He was off today,” Cora said of Whitlock. “His location was off. He’s a strike-thrower and he wasn’t today.

“I had to battle for sure,” Whitlock said on NESN’s postgame coverage. “(The Angels) shot off a lot of really good pitches and I didn’t have the command of my changeup that I wanted. Other than that, just battled through it.”

Here are more notes from Saturday night’s Red Sox-Angels game:

— The Angels’ two runs were scored when Rafael Devers misplayed a hopping ground ball in the sixth inning. The third baseman was charged with an error on the play.

“That’s a routine play, (Devers) knows that,” Cora said. “(The ball) was in between the hop, and the ball just kicked up, and he just missed the play.”

Even though Devers has struggled defensively at times, Cora has no plans to move on from the third baseman.

“He’s my third baseman,” Cora said. “He’s going to play a lot of third base here. He’s made some improvements, everybody saw it in Spring Training. He just missed a play today. Overall he’s been pretty solid for us for the last few months.”

— Justin Slaten pitched two scoreless innings, striking out five of the six batters he faced.

“That was electric. That was fun to watch,” Cora said. “Just like Garrett, little by little we’ll keep giving him more. We have to be very cautious about his health. In the minor leagues, there’s no back-to-backs. There’s no multi-innings. He hasn’t done that. It’s baby steps with him.”

— At 6-3, the Red Sox will return to Boston for Opening Day at Fenway Park with a winning record over their 10-game West Coast road trip to begin the season.

— Boston will look for its seventh win in the rubber match against Los Angeles on Sunday. First pitch from Angel Stadium is scheduled for 4:07 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus a full hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.