Rangers Drop Series Opener At Angels
The Texas Rangers dropped the opener of a two-game series 5-3 at the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night.
Texas falls to 18-23 overall and 1-4 on its 10-game, 11-day road trip. The Rangers lost three of four over the weekend at the Houston Astros.
The Angels, second in the American League West, improved to 27-17. Los Angeles was swept by Texas last week in Arlington.
The Angels broke through in what turned out to be a disastrous fourth inning for Texas starter Dane Dunning. With runners at the corners and no outs, Luis Rengifo grounded out to first to score to score Jared Walsh for the game’s first run.
That opened the floodgates. A pair of singles by Brandon Marsh and Tyler Wade that didn’t get out of the infield, a throwing error by Rangers shortstop Corey Seager and a sacrifice fly from Andrew Velazquez helped three more runs cross the plate.
The 4-0 deficit after four innings was too much for Texas to overcome.
Dunning fell to 1-3 after lasting 6 1/3 innings and allowing five earned runs on 11 hits and one walk. The right-hander struck out eight and threw 98 pitches, 72 for strikes.
Noah Syndergaard (4-2) kept the Rangers off balance throughout his eight-inning stint. The Mansfield, Texas native gave up just four hits, racked up five strikeouts and excited with a 5-1 lead.
Jonah Heim, one of the surprises for Texas on the young season, put the Rangers on the board with a solo home run to lead off the eighth for his second hit of the night.
Mitch Garver homered with two outs in the ninth to spark a mini-rally. Kole Calhoun followed with a walked and Adolis Garcia doubled to cut the lead to 5-3.
The comeback ended there, as Heim struck out to end the game as the tying run at the plate.
The Rangers are 11-9 in May and aiming for their first winning month since June 2019.
The final game of the Angels series is Wednesday night at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.