ANAHEIM — The Angels got a victory and an encouraging performance from their ace pitcher on Wednesday night.

All that tarnished the 2-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds was the question of Zach Neto’s health. Their starting shortstop was hit by a pitch, leaving the game with what was described as left wrist soreness.

While the Angels and their fans wait to see if this will be just a minor ache for Neto, they could take solace in averting a sweep.

Starter Yusei Kikuchi had his best performance in months, allowing one run in seven innings.

The score was tied, 1-1, in the bottom of the eighth, when No. 9 hitter Bryce Teodosio snapped an 0-for-15 slump with a double into left field. Teodosio advanced to third on a wild pitch.

An out later, Luis Rengifo drove him in with a bloop single.

Right-hander Luis Garcia handled the bottom of the ninth, because closer Kenley Jansen is dealing with a rib injury.

Fortunately for Jansen and Neto, the Angels (61-66) are off on Thursday, before returning to action on Friday.

Neto was hit by a pitch in the third inning. After some brief medical attention he stayed in the game. When he came to bat again in the fifth inning, he winced in pain on a foul ball, again prompting a visit from the trainer. He grounded out on the next pitch, showing clear discomfort.

That was it. He was removed from the game when the Angels took the field in the top of the sixth.

Meanwhile, Kikuchi sliced through the Reds lineup on just 88 pitches. That was fewer than it took him to get through four innings in a frustrating outing against the A’s last week.

That was the eighth time in a nine-start span when Kikuchi failed to get through the sixth inning, which prompted him to do a deep dive into his pitching strategy.

Kikuchi said the problem was that his pitch selection had become predictable, so he spent the past few days talking to Angels hitters and hitting coaches trying to see what he needed to tweak.

The most obvious change on Wednesday was that he barely threw his slider, which had been the pitch he used the most. Kikuchi threw just seven sliders, after throwing it 36% of the time coming into the game.

Kikuchi replaced the sliders mostly with curveballs, increasing his percentage of that pitch from 16% to 42%.

Kikuchi gave up seven hits, but he didn’t walk anyone. He struck out only four.

He gave up back-to-back hits to start the second, escaping with a strikeout and a double play. In the sixth, the first two hitters of the inning reached on hits, the second of which was a pop-up that dropped between Teodosio and right fielder Jo Adell because of a miscommunication. Kikuchi picked up his teammates, retiring the next three on a fly ball and two ground balls.

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