ANAHEIM — The Angels continued to raise the stakes on Thursday night, turning a first-time start, three home runs and two stolen bases into a 5-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
Davis Daniel’s first appearance of the season was his first ever turn in the rotation as he filled up the strike zone while helping the Angels match a season high with their fourth consecutive victory.
“It’s awesome,” Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe said of the team’s recent run of success. “It’s a fun wave to ride but we have another one tomorrow so we’ll enjoy it tonight and come back tomorrow with a clean slate.”
O’Hoppe called Daniel’s outing “a treat” to catch, as he guided a pitcher with just three relief appearances last season to his credit into eight scoreless innings with no walks and eight strikeouts. It was the right-hander’s third appearance on the Angels’ roster this season but the first time he was able to pitch.
Daniel became just the third Angels pitcher to go eight innings this season, after Tyler Anderson and Jose Soriano, and the first to do it without allowing a run.
“Mentally preparing myself to get the outing, I told myself this morning it felt like Christmas morning,” said Daniel, who even admitted to tossing and turning in bed, not unlike a kid expecting a new bicycle to appear in the living room. “You know, once I go to the park, I really felt like I calmed down and everything felt good. I was excited.”
Talk about a guy who knows how to play to the crowd. The Angels are running a “Christmas in June” promotion this weekend and Daniel dove head first into the theme.
“He barely broke a sweat, but he did work fast, he threw strikes and changed speeds; that was the key right there,” Manager Ron Washington said. “He kept the ball down, he elevated the ball when we had to. He was in control all night. A good baseball game is determined by how that guy on the mound handles his business and he handled his business tonight.”
Of his 99 pitches, Daniel threw 73 strikes, barely touching 93 mph in the process. Daniel averaged 91.7 mph on his 47 fastballs.
An offense still missing a slew of veterans was not at a loss for power as Miguel Sano, Willie Calhoun and Luis Rengifo all hit home runs off Tigers veteran Jack Flaherty, who took his lumps in his Southern California homecoming.
A Harvard-Westlake High product, Flaherty lasted 5⅔ innings and gave up five runs, his most since an April 7 start against the Oakland A’s. Daniel stole a page out of the book of Flaherty, who averaged 93.5 mph on his fastball.
The Angels even challenged themselves on the base paths with two more stolen bases, getting one each from Nolan Schanuel and Zach Neto. The Angels now have 69 stolen bases this season after starting the day 10th in baseball in that category and fifth in the American League.
The 27-year-old Daniel gave up just three hits through the first seven innings and breezed through the eighth even after giving up a leadoff single to Wenceel Perez. He retired 10 consecutive batters at one point as the Tigers were shut out for the ninth time.
“I think the changeup was really good from the first inning,” said Daniel, who threw a first-pitch strike to 21 of the 26 batters he faced. “That pitch has been kind of the last pitch to come along this year. Being able to throw that pitch with confidence I think opened up a lot of stuff and I was able to stay in the zone because of it.”
Ben Joyce provided a stark contrast in the ninth inning, blazing through the Tigers in a perfect ninth inning. Joyce threw four of his nine pitches over 100 mph.
Four of the Angels’ five runs came on home runs. Sano was first, hitting his second of the season with a solo shot in the second inning. Calhoun added his own solo shot in the fourth, which was also his second of the season.
Schanuel had an RBI single in the fifth inning, one batter before Rengifo hit a two-run shot, his fifth of the season.
“I think I’ve said since April, when the season opened, that we were making progress and I never got off of that,” Washington said of his team, which is 13-10 in June. “We want to do the same thing in July, August and September and see where it goes. But that’s our purpose, to get better every month and we have.”
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Courtesy : https://www.pressenterprise.com/2024/06/27/davis-daniel-stifles-tigers-in-1st-start-as-angels-win-4th-in-a-row/