Flaherty, bats struggle vs. Halos in series opener

ANAHEIM -- Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty was in the middle of a decent outing -- he had given up two home runs, but they were each solo shots. But then, the fifth inning happened.

Angels shortstop Zach Neto led off the inning with a double. Flaherty got Mickey Moniak to strike out and Jo Adell to ground out, but Nolan Schanuel lined a single into left field to score Neto. Then, second baseman Luis Rengifo sent a slider 404 feet into the right-field bleachers. Suddenly, the Angels were up 5-0 on Thursday night, and Flaherty, who grew up an hour away in Burbank and was making his first career start at Angel Stadium, had no answers.

“They put some good swings on some pitches, put some good swings on some balls," Flaherty said. "I didn't have a very good command of things. Put some guys away when we need to ... but overall, just not really good command of pretty much everything."

Flaherty's night ended the next inning.

The Angels batters were aggressive early in the count, taking advantage of Flaherty’s aggressiveness as the game wore on.

“It’s just a game of adjustments, you just need to go out and attack," he said. “You throw first-pitch strikes, you’re going to give up some first-pitch home runs. That’s what happens ... but you want to keep attacking, get strike one, sometimes strike one ends up being a hit.”

Three of Flaherty’s seven hits allowed came on the first pitch. Both early home runs by Miguel Sanó and Willie Calhoun were on fastballs.

“We had a good approach,” said Angels manager Ron Washington. "We got some breaking balls up. He tried to sneak a fastball by Sanó for the first home run. And same with Calhoun. And Rengifo's came on a breaking ball. We needed to do that because if they would’ve gotten the lead first, with his quality of pitching, you never know what would’ve happened.”

Flaherty (5-5), didn’t have much, if any, help from his offense. The Tigers mustered four hits all game, and two of those – including their only extra-base hit, a double from Riley Greene – came in the first inning.

Detroit had no answers for Angels starter Davis Daniel in his first MLB start.

“Early we did go into attack mode and when we didn’t have anything to show for it, a couple guys went away from it,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “... It’s not just swinging early. It’s about getting a pitch to hit when you do it and not missing it. We didn’t really have a ball on the barrel until the second time through, when Wenceel [Pérez] hit the hard out. We had a hard time squaring [Daniel] up, he did a good job of staying relentless until we did, and he won the night.”