Blanco allowed only three hits, but two of those hits were homers. The right-hander was able to strike out six against two walks while locating 52-of-84 pitches for strikes. Blanco has not worked deeper than five innings in any of his outings this year, but he’s avoided the disastrous start. He walked two while striking out four and seeing his ERA rise to a still healthy 3.34. Flaherty will try and keep the ball in the park next week against the Angles in Los Angeles.

The right-hander walked a pair while striking out three batters on the night. The lone tally against him came on a solo homer by Nathan Lukes in the third inning. Blanco got 12 swings and misses on 93 pitches on the evening, six of them on his slider, while posting a solid CSW of 29 percent. He’ll see if he can carry over the momentum from this outstanding outing as he carries a 5.01 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and a 20/12 K/BB ratio (23 1/3 innings) into Monday’s showdown against the Tigers.

All of the runs came in the fifth, which opened with a bunt single, another single and then a homer. Although he generated 11 missed swings today, Blanco struck out only one batter. He still hasn’t lasted more than five innings in any of his starts, and he’s 1-2 with a 6.48 ERA after the loss today. He’s set to face the Blue Jays next.

This was Blanco’s best start of the season results wise by far, but he still faced some of the same challenges that have caused him to start slow. The Angels had plenty of traffic on the bases as Blanco struggled to spot his slider against this right-handed heavy lineup. However, he worked his curveball well as a pitch he could consistently throw in the zone and stole seven called strikes with it and then mixed his pitches well when ahead in the count to set down what was a red-hot Angels lineup. This was a huge step in the right direction and he’ll look to build on it in his next scheduled start against the Cardinals.