Skip to main content

Rangers' Five Homers Help Kyle Cody Earn First Career Win in 7-2 Victory Over Angels

Five different Texas Rangers hit home runs in support of Kyle Cody, as he earned his first career win in Texas' 7-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

It has seldom happened this season, but the Texas Rangers put together an impressive all-around game that resulted in a 7-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

Rangers' rookie Kyle Cody earned his first career win, pitching five innings for the first time in his very young career. He only allowed one run on three hits while striking out five Angels on Sunday afternoon.

"Cody was light out," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. "I could have kept him out there for another couple of innings. We just didn’t want to risk it all. He hasn’t been up that much all year and hasn’t pitched in a couple of years, so we were going to cap it at five. Great outing by him. Complete control. Used his breaking ball in the strike zone. Command of his fastball was fantastic."

Cody enjoyed the first sustained success and controlling his pitch count from inning to inning. Before making his Major League debut earlier this season, Cody had not pitched since July 2018. Chris Woodward and his staff have been very calculated in how they handle Cody's workload from start to start. 

After his seventh outing of the season (and his fourth start), Cody is confident on how his body is dealing with the return to regular action.

“(My body) feels pretty good," Cody said. "Honestly, after the last Houston outing, I was pretty drained. That was probably the most sore my whole body is felt in a while. But I can already tell after this one, I feel a lot better just because of the pace of the innings, getting my rest in in between innings, and I wasn't running right back out there. I already know that I'm gonna recover a lot better after this one.”

The Rangers' bats gave Cody plenty of support, beginning right away with a two-run home run by Joey Gallo hit to the opposite field. Anderson Tejeda, Sam Huff, Rougned Odor, and Derek Dietrich all added home runs of their own, accounting for six of Texas' seven runs on the afternoon. 

Like Kyle Cody, Huff enjoyed a big milestone in his young career when he hit his home run in the fourth inning of Angels' hurler Patrick Sandoval.

"It got on my quickly," Huff recalled. "It didn’t hit me until I rounded second base ... I will remember it definitely and understand every time I come to Anaheim, it's going to be a cool place to be."

Like some of the other Single-A players on the Rangers roster, Huff has had quite the learning curve since his call up to the big leagues. Not only is he having to work with the pitching staff and prepare behind the plate, he's having to make a very quick adjustment from facing Single-A pitching to facing Major League hurlers.

“Just understanding what they can do, expanding off two strikes," Huff detailed. "Guys can make better pitches in certain situations, knowing your features, knowing where they want to go, if they want to be on corners or thirds. But mainly understanding who they are as a pitcher.”

The Rangers will wrap up this unconventional four-game series on Monday afternoon in their final game against the Angels this season. Kyle Gibson will take the ball for the Rangers and face off with Angels' starter Dylan Bundy. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. CT.

Follow Inside The Rangers on SI on Twitter: @SITexasRangers
Like Inside The Rangers on SI on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SITexasRangers
Follow our Rangers insider Chris Halicke on Twitter: @ChrisHalicke