Jefry Marte’s three-run home run in the first inning jumpstarted the Los Angeles Angels, who beat the Texas Rangers 7-4 for their season-best sixth win in a row Wednesday night at Angel Stadium. Losing Pujols for any length of time would be a blow for the team, which has picked up seven games on the Rangers since July began and now trails Texas by 12 1/2 games.
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Pujols then stayed in the game in the seventh inning when Texas reliever Tony Barnette accidentally hit him in the head with a 92-mph pitch.
The Los Angeles Angels look to sweep the Texas Rangers late Wednesday night. However, they do need to be aggressive in selling.
Unfortunately in the game they still only managed to get off 9 hits with 31 At-Bats and they left 13 players on base.
But even in the tough times, our clubhouse has been good, the bench has been good, and these guys play to the last out. Griffin walked three of the first four hitters, with Trout’s infield single in between, to push home a run. The Rule 5 draft pick was set to be with the the Angels in Arizona, and he would eventually find a place on the already-weak bench when the actual games started.
JC Ramirez, Joe Smith, Jose Alvarez and Huston Street combined to hold the Rangers to one run over the final four innings to finish up a 6-0 homestand. He allowed six hits and struck out four against the Twins.
The Rangers rallied in the ninth inning when Ian Desmond homered, Adrian Beltre doubled and Ryan Rua singled to put runners on the corners with two outs.
“That’s what we said a couple weeks ago, just go into the second half, try to have fun and see what happens”, Santiago said.
“You always worry about a concussion, but he felt fine and he was laughing”, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Pujols.
“I’m starting to swing the bat well now”, Pujols said.
Mike Trout came through again with a big hit for the Los Angeles Angels. A replay review, however, showed that Odor had gotten his hand back into first base just before Andrelton Simmons’ throw hit Ji-Man Choi’s glove.
The Angels added single runs in the third and fourth innings, but the Rangers got a solo homer from Mitch Moreland in the fourth, cutting the deficit to 7-3.
The Angels got a run in the first inning before Marte connected on a 3-0 fastball from Martin Perez for a three-run homer. “Instead of trying to pitch his way out by changing speeds, he kept trying to throw harder and consequently lost his release point”.
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Racing to a 4-0 lead after the first and extending it to 5-0 after the second and putting the Rangers in early jeopardy got the Angels pointed in the right direction. Surgery was recommended, but he will seek a second opinion later this week….
