Angels beat White Sox when Mike Trout scores on wild pitch in 9th

ANAHEIM — Mike Trout, who has struggled at the plate this season more than any other year of his career, stepped up after striking out in all three of his previous trips on Monday night, looking for anything to turn around the game for him and the Angels.

He was still able to produce a run, first by drawing a walk, then by stealing third base. Trout then scrambled home with the winning run on a wild pitch in the Angels’ 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

“I was grinding the first three at-bats,” Trout said, “but I had a good at-bat in the ninth, got on base. I haven’t been running, but I tried to take a chance to help the team. It was a good opportunity to make something happen.”

After Trout walked, he went to second on a Shohei Ohtani walk. Then they both moved up on steals, just the second of the season for Trout. With one out and Mike Moustakas at the plate, Aaron Bummer threw a pitch past catcher Yasmani Grandal, and Trout came home with a head-first slide to end the pitchers’ duel.

The Angels’ other run was on Ohtani’s major league-leading 26th homer, a 446-foot shot in the fourth inning.

“My two best stepped up today,” Manager Phil Nevin said of Trout and Ohtani. “Usually you win those.”

The Angels needed to win one after losing four of five games last week, including two of three against the last-place Colorado Rockies.

This decisive run came too late for starter Reid Detmers to get the victory he deserved after he allowed one run in seven innings. He lowered his ERA to 1.05 in his last four starts.

Detmers struck out 10, making him the third pitcher in Angels history to have four straight starts allowing one run or fewer with eight strikeouts or more. Ohtani and Nolan Ryan, who did it twice, are the others.

“Just commanding the zone,” Detmers said of his recent improvement. “I think that’s been huge. Throwing everything in the zone and then expanding when I need to.”

The streak has helped Detmers cut his season ERA to 3.77, which is exactly what it was during his breakout rookie season in 2022.

Many figured Detmers would be even better this season, in part because he had added velocity to his best pitch, his slider. Lately, though, Detmers has been throwing his slider with less velocity at times, which he said gives the hitters more of a mix to keep them off balance.

Nevin compared it to Ohtani, who can throw the same pitch in a variety of ways to confuse hitters.

“I think (Detmers) watches the guy who pitches after him (Ohtani) and he’s understanding manipulating the ball and throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters and using your defense,” Nevin said. “I know he had 10 punchouts today. He’s able to get strikeouts. But he’s also able to get a lot of soft contact with changing speeds and changing shapes on his pitches. He’s really starting to understand what pitching is all about. When you have the kind of stuff he has and that comes together, usually good things happen.”

On Monday night Detmers gave up a homer to Luis Robert Jr. in the first inning, but he retired everyone else in the first four innings. In the fifth, he gave up a leadoff single and then a walk, but he responded with three straight strikeouts.

Detmers pitched a perfect sixth and then worked around a one-out walk to get through the seventh with 105 pitches.

Jacob Webb pitched a perfect eighth and then closer Carlos Estévez got through the ninth with the help of a double play, setting up the Angels for the winning rally in the bottom of the inning.

The victory moved the Angels (43-37) back to six games over .500 with one game to go before the midpoint of the season. They’ve had encouraging stretches and frustrating ones, but starting pitching like what Detmers has provided certainly gives them a chance at more winning baseball in the second half.

“We’ve got a good squad, obviously,” Detmers said. “It doesn’t always show, but that’s baseball. Just gotta keep our heads down and keep going. There’s not a whole lot to it.”

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