ANAHEIM ― When the Angels unloaded closer Raisel Iglesias and the entirety of his $58 million contract just before the trade deadline, the two pitchers they received from the Atlanta Braves in return ― Tucker Davidson and Jesse Chavez ― were easy to dismiss as an afterthought. With a 2022 playoff berth all but mathematically out of reach, dumping Iglesias’ salary appeared to be the primary feature of the trade for the Angels.

Turns out they might have gotten something in return after all.

Making his first home start since the trade, Davidson allowed two runs over six innings in the Angels’ 5-2 win over the Minnesota Twins.

The rookie didn’t allow a run after the first inning, in which he walked Carlos Correa before surrendering a two-run homer to Byron Buxton that cleared the yellow stripe in right field.

Jaime Barría and Jose Quijada closed out the Angels’ second straight win before an announced crowd of 27,515 at Angel Stadium. Quijada earned his third save of the season, while Davidson (2-3) was credited with his first win as an Angel.

For Davidson, the result was the culmination of a few small changes the Angels were able to coax from his left arm in short order.

“My slider was really good today,” Davidson said. “It had the same shape as it was earlier in the season. That’s been a whole lot of progress. I felt I had better direction today in my mechanics. That’s something I really focused on this last week, just getting more direction going toward home plate, not really falling off toward third base. That’s two things I focused on.

“Then continuing to improve on the changeup.”

The changeup was something of a secret weapon that Davidson never harnessed in four games (three starts) with the Braves this season. He altered his grip on the pitch after reaching the big leagues in 2020, trying to induce more gyro spin without success.

The Angels immediately urged Davidson to go back to the changeup grip he had used as a minor leaguer coming up through the Braves’ system. He had been working on the grip in the days since the Aug. 2 trade was completed.

The Twins saw only six changeups from Davidson on Sunday, but that might have been enough to make him a more effective pitcher.

“We got a couple outs today on it,” Davidson said. “That was huge. I either want a lazy ground ball or a lazy fly ball, that’s really what I’m looking for. And we got a couple of those off it. It’s coming a long way.”

“(Pitching coach Matt Wise) is terrific in teaching that pitch,” Angels interim manager Phil Nevin said. “ He threw a couple really good ones today. A lot of it is just the look. It’s in their head now. Not everything is just hard. If he can get that changeup buttoned up a little bit, you’ll see a good pitcher.”

Davidson had his best slider working. He threw it three times to induce a two-strike swing and miss for the third out of an inning. With a runner on second base in the sixth, Davidson threw a slider past Jorge Polanco to complete an eight-pitch at-bat, ending the inning.

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That was the last of his 87 pitches. He walked one batter ― a vast improvement over his Angels debut last weekend in Seattle, in which Davidson issued five free passes ― and struck out three.

Davidson said he was able to learn a thing or two by watching Reid Detmers’ start against the the Twins on Saturday, in which he allowed two runs in five innings. Both are left-handed pitchers who rely heavily on their fastball and slider.

“He threw a bunch of fastballs,” Davidson said of Detmers. “We kind of talked about that. I think utilizing that, guys were chasing up. … His slider was good, so I saw, OK, these guys I can throw sliders to, I might have to get them off of it and throw a changeup. Overall I think the slider was a big pitch today.”

Luis Rengifo’s two-run double, which nearly cleared the short fence in left field, tied the game 2-2 in the third inning.

A sacrifice fly by Kurt Suzuki in the fourth inning, and an RBI single by Shohei Ohtani in the seventh inning, gave Davidson all the runs he needed for the victory.

David Fletcher and Jared Walsh each had two of the Angels’ eight hits.

The Angels (51-64) took two out of three games from the Twins (58-55) after sweeping a three-game series in Oakland. It’s the first time the Angels have won back-to-back series since May 9-15 (against the Rays and A’s).