By Laura Soukkavong –
BOSTON — September had been treating the Boston Red Sox rather well until Tuesday night, when Reid Detmers arrived at Fenway Park and reminded them how quickly a winning streak can disappear when the bats disappear with it. The Los Angeles Angels left-hander allowed one hit over six scoreless innings, and Boston managed only four hits altogether in a 6-1 loss that ended its five-game winning streak.
The loss dropped the Red Sox to 80-66 and left them 6-3 over their last nine games since Aug. 31. Boston had allowed five runs or fewer in each of its previous five games, but the Angels collected 15 hits and scored six runs while improving to 55-90 and earning their first victory in five meetings with the Red Sox this season.
For Boston, this was less a night of squandered scoring opportunities than one in which there were remarkably few opportunities to squander. Reid Detmers controlled the Red Sox for six innings, throwing a career-high 112 pitches while allowing only one hit and one walk, striking out nine and hitting one batter.
There are nights when an offense can point toward runners left in scoring position or a crucial at-bat that went unfinished. Tuesday offered little of that kind of consolation because Boston spent most of the evening trying simply to create traffic against Reid Detmers, who never allowed the Red Sox to establish any sustained offensive pressure.
The performance extended an impressive second half for Reid Detmers. In 10 starts since the All-Star break, he owns a 1.37 earned run average after allowing nine earned runs over 59 1/3 innings, the lowest earned run average among major league starters over that span with a minimum of 30 innings.
Tuesday was also his sixth consecutive quality start, making Reid Detmers the first Angels pitcher to accomplish that since Shohei Ohtani did it from July 6 through Aug. 18, 2021. Reid Detmers has now worked at least six innings while allowing one run or fewer in six consecutive starts, becoming the second pitcher in Angels history to produce such a streak after Dean Chance did it in seven straight starts in 1964.
Fenway Park has been particularly accommodating to Reid Detmers, or perhaps Reid Detmers has simply been particularly unforgiving to hitters there. His scoreless streak at Fenway has reached at least 17 2/3 innings, making him the second visiting pitcher since 2010 with a scoreless streak of that length at the ballpark, joining Dylan Cease.
While Reid Detmers kept Boston quiet, the Angels steadily made Patrick Sandoval work. Patrick Sandoval completed six innings and matched his season highs with seven strikeouts and six innings pitched, but Los Angeles collected 10 hits against him, matching the second-highest total he has allowed in a game during his career.
The Angels started building their advantage before Boston could find an answer against Reid Detmers. Vaughn Grissom doubled and scored in the second inning, then returned in the third with a run-scoring single that extended the Los Angeles advantage to 3-0.
Jose Siri also delivered a run-scoring single in the third, ending an 0-for-27 stretch that had dated to Aug. 30. For an Angels club that entered the night having lost 13 of its previous 17 games, those early runs provided Reid Detmers with more than enough support.
Vaughn Grissom finished 2-for-3 with a double, a run scored, a run batted in and a walk. He has now hit safely in six of his last nine games since Aug. 30, batting .278 with three doubles, one home run and six runs batted in during that stretch.
Los Angeles continued to accumulate hits throughout the evening. Travis d’Arnaud doubled twice and scored twice, while Moisés Ballesteros collected two singles and continued a productive September in which he is batting .360 with a 1.025 on-base-plus-slugging percentage through seven games.
The volume of Angels hits became a problem Boston never solved. The 15 allowed by the Red Sox marked only the fourth time this season they have surrendered at least 15 hits, and Tuesday was the 53rd game in which Boston has allowed at least 10.
The results in those games have been decisive. The Red Sox are 12-41 when allowing at least 10 hits, a record that illustrates how difficult it has been for Boston to overcome nights when opposing offenses consistently put runners on base.
Patrick Sandoval kept the Angels from completely breaking the game open during his six innings, but four runs were enough because Boston had almost nothing going offensively. He finished with four runs allowed, 10 hits, two walks and seven strikeouts over his six innings.
Boston finally found its only run after Reid Detmers had finished his night. Trevor Story doubled and scored in the seventh inning, and Nick Sogard drove him home with a single to give the Red Sox their first and only run.
Trevor Story’s double continued his productive return from the injured list. Since being reinstated Aug. 30, Trevor Story is batting .351 over nine games, going 13-for-37 with five doubles and four runs batted in while producing an .837 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
Nick Sogard also continued an encouraging stretch despite the loss. His seventh-inning run-scoring single was followed by another single in the ninth, giving him a 2-for-4 night and Boston’s only multi-hit performance.
Over his last 21 games since Aug. 17, Nick Sogard is batting .300 with a .903 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. He has 10 extra-base hits during that stretch, including six doubles and four home runs, while producing 10 runs batted in and nine multi-hit games.
Wilyer Abreu provided Boston’s other hit, singling in the first inning and later drawing a walk in the eighth. Wilyer Abreu has reached safely at least twice in a team-leading 66 games this season, but those individual moments could not become part of a larger rally Tuesday.
That was the story of Boston’s offense throughout the night. The Red Sox were held to four hits or fewer for the 16th time this season and fell to 7-9 in those games, while the Angels held an opponent to four hits or fewer for the 24th time.
Boston was also held to one run or fewer for the 27th time this season. The Red Sox are now 2-25 in those games, an unsurprising record but one that demonstrates how little margin exists when the offense produces almost nothing.
The Angels made certain there would be no dramatic late comeback. Zach Neto had already singled in the first and fifth innings and doubled in the seventh before coming to the plate again in the ninth with Los Angeles leading 4-1.
Zach Neto hit a two-run home run that stretched the advantage to 6-1 and effectively removed whatever possibility remained of a Boston comeback. He finished 4-for-5 with a double, home run, two runs batted in and a run scored, producing the second game of his career with at least four hits.
The performance added to a season in which Zach Neto ranks seventh in the American League with 57 extra-base hits and is tied for eighth with 29 doubles. Tuesday was also the sixth time this season he reached base at least four times.
The Angels needed that kind of performance because little about their season has gone according to plan. They entered Fenway with 89 losses and had won only three of their previous 17 games, but their recent record had little relevance once Reid Detmers began working through the Boston lineup.
Los Angeles improved to 25-46 away from home and has now won five of its last 11 road games. The Angels are also 12-9 in their last 21 meetings with Boston and 5-6 in their last 11 games at Fenway Park.
For the Red Sox, one September loss does not erase five consecutive victories. Boston remains 6-3 over its last nine games, and a winning streak was always eventually going to end.
The more useful question is what kind of loss this was. Boston did not lose because of one defensive mistake, one unsuccessful relief appearance or one late swing that changed the result; the Red Sox were beaten across most of the night by a starting pitcher who gave them almost nothing and an Angels offense that kept producing hits.
The contrast was difficult to miss. Los Angeles finished with 15 hits while Boston finished with four, and the Red Sox never developed the sustained offensive pressure necessary to make Reid Detmers uncomfortable or force the Angels into a different kind of game.
There was also a reminder in the result about the limits of momentum in baseball. Boston entered Tuesday with five consecutive victories, while Los Angeles had won only four of its previous 17 games, but none of those earlier results placed a runner on base or a run on the scoreboard at Fenway.
Reid Detmers made sure of that for six innings. By the time Boston finally scored against the Angels bullpen in the seventh, the Red Sox were trying to overcome a four-run deficit with an offense that had spent most of the evening searching for its second hit.
September will offer nights considerably more important than Tuesday as Boston works through the final portion of its schedule. What the Red Sox cannot afford is for one quiet offensive night to become several of them, particularly after a five-game stretch in which their pitching had kept opponents to five runs or fewer each time.
Tuesday stopped that run in both directions. The Angels scored six, Boston scored one, and the five-game winning streak became part of the past rather than something the Red Sox could carry into another night.
A winning streak can create momentum in the standings, but it cannot guarantee anything about the next nine innings. Reid Detmers demonstrated that at Fenway Park, where Boston’s September surge encountered a left-hander pitching as well as any starter in baseball since the All-Star break.
The Red Sox had spent five games finding ways to win. On Tuesday night, Reid Detmers gave them almost no way to do it.