The Rangers snapped a three-game slide in Anaheim on May 25 as the Texas bats came alive in a 7-2 win over the Angels.
Rangers starting pitcher Glenn Otto (2-2) tossed five strong innings, giving up just three hits and one run while striking out seven on his way to victory.
“Their guys were good, their guys are really good,” Angels Skipper Joe Madden said. “They have a nice ball club. I know their record is not where they want it to be, but (Mitch) Garver is getting hot right now. He does look good. (Jonah) Heim has really played good against us, I can say this because it feels like we play them almost every day.”
The Angels and Rangers have faced off nine times this year, with Texas winning five. The two AL West rivals do not play again until eight games after the All-Star break, when the Rangers host the Angels on July 28.
Otto left the game to the Rangers’ bullpen, as Dennis Santana, Brock Burke, and Joe Barlow allowed only one run in four combined innings of work.
The Rangers changed their lineup so that Marcus Semien, who was having trouble, would bat first. He came into the game with a lowly batting average of .185, but moving to the top of the batting order seemed to help.
Semien hit 2-for-4 and drove in a run. He still has not hit a home run this season (after blasting 39 last season as a Blue Jay), but he did hit his first triple of the year.
Two home runs in the top of the fourth inning gave the Rangers a comfortable lead. Garver, who went 1-for-4 for the game, hit a solo home run with no one out. This was his second RBI of the game and his sixth home run of the season.
Two batters later – and following a walk by Heim and strikeout by Adolis Garcia – Kole Calhoun belted a 0-1 curveball into the rightfield stands for his seventh dinger of the year, giving the Rangers a 4-1 lead. Calhoun ended the day going 3-for-4 with two RBI and three runs.
Texas would not look back as the team combined to hit .555 with runners in scoring position in the win (5-for-9).
The win moves the Rangers to 19-23 on the season, 8.5 games behind first-place Houston and 6.5 behind the Angels.
Next up for Texas is a four-game set in Oakland against the Athletics (fifth in the AL West with a record of 19-27, half a game better than last place Seattle.)
The contest against the A’s in Oakland is set to start Thursday at 8:40 p.m. CDT with probable pitchers Martin Perez (3-2, 1.64) on the bump for Texas and Frankie Montas (2-4, 3.55) handling pitching duties for the A’s.