Rookie Ryan Johnson held Detroit to one run on two hits over five innings and Zach Neto singled home the eventual winning run in the sixth as the Los Angeles Angels beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 on Sunday, snapping a four-game losing streak and avoiding a sweep one day after Tarik Skubal shut them out 7-0.
Kevin McGonigle opened the game with a home run, his ninth, and Johnson gave up little else, walking three and striking out five before handing the game to the bullpen. The outing continued a quietly steadier stretch for the 23-year-old: over his last four starts he has allowed seven earned runs in 19 innings, a 3.32 ERA that has begun to pull his season mark, now 6.10, back toward respectability. He improved to 2-4.
Oswald Peraza tied the game with an RBI single in the second, Jorge Soler‘s fifth-inning groundout scored Neto for a 2-1 lead, and Neto’s ground single to right in the sixth brought home Peraza with what proved to be the decisive run. Peraza finished 2-for-4, and Nolan Schanuel had three of the Angels’ nine hits.
The bullpen made it stand up. Samy Natera Jr., Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman combined for three scoreless innings before Ryan Zeferjahn allowed Riley Greene‘s 14th home run in the ninth, then closed out his third save. Zeferjahn has handled recent ninth-inning work while Kirby Yates’ name circulates in trade talk ahead of the August 3 deadline.
At 39-61, the Angels still own the worst record in the majors, and one Sunday win doesn’t change the seller math. But a game in which a 23-year-old starter, the middle infield and the bullpen all did their jobs is the kind the front office needs to see more of in the season’s final ten weeks.
On the fantasy side, Zeferjahn is the name to file away — if Yates is dealt in the next two weeks, the save chances in Anaheim likely run through him, and speculative closer adds win leagues in August. Johnson remains a deep-league streamer only, though the recent four-start stretch is real, and Neto’s 19 homers keep him a top-12 shortstop the rest of the way.
