Angels Lose To Rangers, 4-1, As Bullpen Fails In 10th Inning

The Los Angeles Angels gave the Texas Rangers all they could handle for nine innings in their series opener, but the Rangers broke the game open in the tenth inning to get a 4-1 win. 

Mike Trout got the Angels on the board early with a solo homer in the first, as he hit a monster shot off Texas starter McKenzie Gore. It was his 20th homer of the season and his 49th career homer against the Rangers, who have long been a favorite Trout opponent.

“It was a nice swing,” said manager Kurt Suzuki in a followup piece from Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “It was a picturesque Trout swing and a good piece of hitting. He stayed back on that breaking ball and hit it to the left-center field gap. It’s the kind of swing that we've all come to love watching him play these last 15 years.” 

Detmers settled down after posting a bad start in the midst of the trade deadline chaos, and he gave up just one run vian an RBI single from Elias Diaz in the fourth to tie the game at 1-1. 

“The stuff felt really good, but I’d like to have that pitch back to Díaz,” Detmers said as he summarized his outing. “Four straight fastballs, it's usually not a good outcome. We had him in a good spot to throw a fastball in, but I should have thrown a slider. It is what it is. The four walks kind of hurt, but the pitch count was fine. Overall it was good. Six innings, give up a run, we'll take that every time.”

But the Angels couldn’t capitalize once the relievers took over and began swapping zeroes. The Halos got good work from Jose Fermin, Tyler Saucedo, Ben Joyce and Samy Natera Jr., but the Texas crew was just as good when Gore departed in the sixth as his pitch count went over 100 for the night. 

Things went awry in the tenth as the Angels went to reliever Luke Murphy, who had been impressive before this game with three straight scoreless outings after being brought up from Triple-A Salt Lake. 

But Murphy came back to earth by giving up a walk and a single to load the  bases, and the Angels made a matchup move with one out as they brought in Blake Weiman, and the reliever quickly surrendered singles to Brandon Nimmo and Jake Burger. 

That made it 4-1, and the Angels went quietly in their half of the tenth against reliever Jacob Latz, who shut down the Halos to get his 23rd save, with Peyton Grey getting the win to up his record to 6-0. 

The series continues tonight with Ryan Johnson going up against Cody Bradford for Texas.