Rangers Lose Second Straight to Angels

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images

June 14, 2023

Angels 7, Rangers 3

ARLINGTON, Tex. (June 13) — The Texas Rangers stretched their losing streak to three as they fell to the Los Angeles Angels, 7–3, Tuesday night. Angels right fielder Hunter Renfroe gave a big offensive spark with a two-run home run in the sixth. Corey Seager and Nathaniel Lowe both had homers for the Rangers, but they ultimately fell short in the second game of this four-game set. They’ll look to turn things around in the third game of this series, which will be on Wednesday at 7:05 pm Central at Globe Life Field. Left-hander Reid Detmers (1–5, 4.79 ERA) will be the starting pitcher for the Angels. Fellow lefty Andrew Heaney (4–4, 4.14 ERA) will take the mound for the Rangers.

A Trout-less Offense

The Angels’ lineup looked a little different on Tuesday, as outfielder Mike Trout had the evening off. Angels fans have nothing to worry about, however, as there was no injury news to report regarding Trout prior to first pitch. It appears that Angels manager Phil Nevin merely wanted to get him some rest. They still had Shohei Ohtani in the lineup, however. The Angels scored first on Tuesday in the top of the third. Chad Wallach crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly to center by Taylor Ward. The Rangers responded in the bottom half of the inning, grabbing a 2–1 lead on a two-run blast to center by Lowe, his eighth homer of the year.

The Rangers added onto their slim lead with another home run. This one came off the bat of Seager in the bottom of the fifth. Like Lowe, this was the eighth of the season for Seager. The score remained 3–1 until the top of the sixth. Ohtani scored on a force out grounded into by Anthony Rendon. There was a throwing error by Seager on this play as well. On deck was Hunter Renfroe, who promptly gave the Angels a 4–3 lead with a two-run shot to right. The Angels didn’t stop there. In the top of the ninth, Zach Neto launched a ball over the wall in center. The homer drove in Wallach, who had drawn a walk moments prior, to extend the Angels’ lead to 6–3. Their final run of the evening came courtesy of Brandon Drury, who drove in Ohtani with a single to left.

Pitching Notes

Left-hander Cody Bradford started this one for the Rangers. Bradford took a no-decision on Tuesday. His final line on the evening was 4 1/3 IP, 2 H, 1 R-ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 64 pitches/42 strikes. Bradford was recalled from Triple-A Round Rock before Tuesday’s game and pitched on three days rest. His previous start came on Friday at Salt Lake, where he pitched eight innings and gave up three earned runs. He threw 99 pitches, 75 of which were strikes. Bradford left Tuesday’s game with the Rangers ahead, 2–1, marking the first time this season that he has exited the game with the Rangers holding a lead. Rangers righty Owen White made his major league debut on Tuesday, replacing starting pitcher Cody Bradford in the top of the fifth with one out. He managed to strike out Wallach swinging for his first career strikeout in the majors.

White finished the night with 2 IP, 4 H, 3R-ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR, 36 pitches/24 strikes. He became the third Rangers player to make his major league debut this season. The others are Cody Bradford on May 15 against the Atlanta Braves and Grant Anderson on May 30 against the Detroit Tigers. The other two runs were given up by Jose Leclerc. White took the loss on Tuesday, bringing his record to 0–1 with an ERA of 5.92. Jaime Barria started this one for the Angels and surrendered all three of the Rangers’ runs, but it was righty Jimmy Herget who got the win. Herget pitched an inning and a third. He gave up one hit and struck out one. Carlos Estévez recorded the save for the Halos, his 18th of the year.

Postgame Comments

In his postgame media session, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy addressed his offense and their inability to tack on runs late in the game. He said, “We’ve been spoiled with all the timely hits that we got so far this year. It’s hard to sustain that. We were missing the big hit today, and we had some chances. That one hit with runners in scoring position never came like we wanted. I think I said it on Monday, but this game isn’t easy. You’re going to go through rough patches.”