Reid Detmers leads Angels pitching staff to series-salvaging victory ...

BALTIMORE — In the third game of the season, the Angels finally showed what their pitchers can do.

After allowing 24 runs in the first two games, the Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-1, on Sunday to salvage the final game of the season-opening series.

Left-hander Reid Detmers worked five strong innings and then right-hander José Soriano delivered three electric innings, cracking 100 mph with 12 of his 34 pitches. Closer Carlos Estévez worked the a perfect ninth on 12 pitches for his first save of the year. They combined to allow three singles.

“We needed that pitching job,” Manager Ron Washington said. “That starting job that (Detmers) gave us, we needed it very, very badly, and he gave it to us. And then other guys that came in just followed up what he had done.”

Detmers gave up one run, striking out seven. He dominated outside of a shaky second inning, when the Orioles scored a run on two walks, a hit batter and an infield hit.

Otherwise, the Orioles didn’t get a runner to second base against Detmers.

Detmers struck out Cedric Mullins on a curve that was so sharp Mullins actually ducked before the ball caught the inside corner of the zone.

His new slider was also working. Detmers said in spring training that he changed his slider to have slightly less velocity, which he figured would make it tougher for hitters.

Detmers was also able to use his fastball effectively. The Orioles whiffed on 12 of their 22 swings against his fastball.

“That’s kind of what we talked about in pregame, setting guys up with the fastball,” Detmers said. “I was able to do that. The offspeed combined with the good fastball worked pretty well today.”

Washington pulled Detmers after 88 pitches in five innings, setting up an opportunity to use Soriano.

The Angels tried Soriano as a starter this spring. He pitched well enough to continue as a starter, but the Angels didn’t have a spot for him in the big league rotation, so they will instead use him as a multi-inning reliever.

Soriano breezed through the sixth inning on 10 pitches, but in the seventh he gave up a hit and then a walk, with ball four coming on a pitch timer violation. As the top of the Orioles order came to the plate, Washington visited Soriano for a pep talk. Soriano got out of the inning with a ground ball and a fly ball.

Soriano worked around his own error — when he mishandled the flip from first baseman Nolan Schanuel — and a walk in the eighth inning.

“I’ve never seen something like that,” Estévez said of Soriano. “I’ve been in this game for a while now and oh my God. One hundred one. Super Sink. Nasty breaking ball. Come on. Is this a kid created from a video game? That was just insane.”

Washington said Soriano could be a “huge weapon,” and he pointed out that his performance was against a hot-hitting team.

“He went through the same guys that scored (24) runs against us,” Washington said. “They are the same guys. Today we got the best of them.”

It started in the first inning, with a Taylor Ward two-run homer, his second in as many games. In the second, the Angels parlayed three singles and a throwing error by catcher Brian McCann into two runs.

That was all the runs the Angels pitchers needed to pick up a victory that emphatically turned the page on two straight blowout losses, leading to a meeting after Saturday’s game.

“We know what type of team we are,” Detmers said. “To have a meeting after the second game, it was just to calm us down. It was nothing crazy. It’s not like a getting-your-(butt)-chewed team meeting. Just calm down, play like you know how to to play. Just go out and have fun. That’s all it was. There’s zero pressure.”