Marcus Semien Leads Texas Rangers Past Angels

The Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Angels, 6-2, on Saturday in Mesa, Ariz. Here’s a breakdown of the game.

Rangers 6, Angels 2

How the Rangers won: Despite a late scratch of the Rangers starting pitcher, Texas got a two-run home run from Marcus Semien and scored four runs late to claim the victory.

Records: Los Angeles Angels, 13-6-2; Texas, 10-12.

Winning pitcher: Joe Barlow (1-0, TEX)

Losing pitcher: Ryan Tepera (1-1, LAA)

Save: José Leclerc (2)

Rangers at the plate: It was a scoreless game until the top of the fifth inning when Marcus Semien hit a two-run home run, his first of the spring.

In the seventh, the Rangers added a run after back-to-back singles by Robbie Grossman and Josh Smith. Yoshi Tsutsugo singled home Duran (pinch-running for Grossman) to make it 3-0.

The Rangers got to the Angels for three more runs in the top of the eight. Jonathan Ornelas doubled, but he was caught stealing third base. Clint Frazier re-started the rally with a pinch-hit double, followed by Cameron Cauley’s RBI single. Duran tripled home Cauley and then scored on a groundout by Griffin Cheney.

Nathaniel Lowe was the only Rangers player with two or more hits and improved his spring batting average to .323.

Rangers on the mound: The Rangers scratched Glenn Otto before the game due to right lat tightness, so Chase Lee got the start in his place. He threw 1 1/3 innings and gave up one hit and a walk while striking out two.

John King took it from there and pitched 2 1/3 innings, giving up two hits and a walk while striking out four.

Joe Barlow, one of last year’s closers, went 1 1/3 innings and gave up two hits while striking out three. He handed the ball to Ian Kennedy, another former Rangers closer, who pitched a scoreless sixth and gave up a walk.

Rangers Top 30 prospect Marc Church threw a scoreless seventh with a strikeout, while Josh Sborz went 2/3 innings in the eighth, giving up two runs, two hits, two walks and struck out two. He gave way to José Leclerc, who escaped the jam with a strikeout. He piched a scoreless ninth to end the game.

From the Park

Some tweets from Saturday’s game:

Marcus Semien’s first home run of the spring, video included:

Two-run homer for #2 💪 pic.twitter.com/Z9K0P4VLnW
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) March 18, 2023

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook and Twitter.

Need to catch up on the Rangers? Check out our Texas Rangers Offseason Central Page!

Need to get ready for Spring Training? Check out our Rangers Spring Training Tracker