ANAHEIM, Calif._One year ago this week, the Angels' Matt Shoemaker transformed himself from one of the worst pitchers in baseball into one of the best. His was a turnaround so unexpected, so lacking in explanation and so massive, it confused the entire sport.
Because of that, and because of the circumstances surrounding his initial emergence at age 27 in 2014, he will always foster hope when he produces a start like he did in the Angels' Friday night victory over Detroit, 7-0. Is the great Shoemaker back?
If that answer becomes affirmative in the coming weeks, the moment he returned will be easy to pinpoint. He loaded the bases without an out in Friday's second inning and then turned on another gear to thereafter evade damage.
So far this season, he had failed to do so. But, from May 16 to July 22 last year, Shoemaker repeatedly did just that. He logged a superb 2.56 earned-run average over 13 starts, striking out 98 hitters while walking just one dozen. Because he had carried an awful 9.12 through his first six starts, talent evaluators didn't know quite what to make of it. Even now, it's a constant frame of reference. Angels manager Mike Scioscia cited the run before Friday's game, saying he hoped Shoemaker used that experience advancing from failure to move out of mediocrity this year "and get to be where he was last year."
From Friday's moment forward, Shoemaker retired 15 of the 16 hitters he faced and struck out six of them. Miguel Cabrera was the only Tiger to reach base, on a two-out single in the third. For the night, Shoemaker struck out seven and allowed only four baserunners. He had thrown only 94 pitches through six innings, but the Angels already led by five, so Scioscia pulled him in favor of Blake Parker.
The Angels, too, loaded the bases without an out in the second and did little with it. But they managed a run, to tack on to Luis Valbuena's solo shot that began that inning. They added a run in the fourth, on a single and double interspersed with groundouts, a run in the fifth on two singles and an error, and a run in the sixth on a double, a bunt and single.
Highly paid Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann, not long ago a borderline ace, has this season proven incapable of lasting deep into games. The Angels kept that going, punishing him for 10 hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings and striking out just twice. They did it again against highly paid Tigers reliever Anibal Sanchez in the eighth, collecting three hits and two runs on Mike Trout's 430-foot shot to center field.
Trout nearly finished 0-for-4 for the second consecutive night, since his extended absence because of a tight left hamstring. He had not gone 0-for-4 on consecutive days since the first two games of the 2016 season, but he avoided that by clobbering a two-run home run with two outs in the Angels' half of the eighth.
The Angels (18-20) had not won a game by more than five runs all season, so Friday's events stood as a clobbering.
