The Angels’ struggled at the plate in Arlington as they fell behind early and never found a rhythm, dropping to the Rangers.
Texas struck first in the opening inning, stringing together timely hits off Yusei Kikuchi. Wyatt Langford’s sac fly got the scoring started, Josh Jung added an RBI single and Adolis García doubled to cap a three run frame. That quick deficit set the tone for the night.
The Rangers padded their lead in the second when Jonah Heim launched a two-run homer to left, stretching the advantage to 5-0. By the fourth, Kyle Higashioka joined the power display with a solo shot to center, putting Texas firmly in control.
On the other side, the Angels couldn’t generate offense against Patrick Corbin and the Rangers’ bullpen. Mike Trout doubled in the first but was stranded, and from that point on, Los Angeles rarely threatened. At bats were dominated by quick groundouts and strikeouts, with the lineup unable to sustain any momentum whilst the Rangers kept it.
Neto and Adell both homered left in the 9th, but, overall tough game tonight and nothing else to say. 3-7 Rangers.
Tough Game vs. Rangers
20 games and 96 PAs into his AAA promotion, Nelson Rada now has a .368/.484/.500 slash hitting at the top of the Bees order, after getting on five times in six tries tonight. All against Texas pitchers aged 28-31.
There’s really nothing left for him but to be called up once the calendar turns over to September this Monday. It hasn’t been a flash in the pan – he’s made it on base in all but two games since his call-up. Stole his 47th base tonight.
He has certainly hit better than I expected, even with the SLC Bump
On the bright side, the 66ers got their first look at Ethan Holliday tonight and gave boy wonder a fat lip. 0 for 4 with three Ks.
The IE boys didn’t surrender a run until the 8th inning, led by another scoreless outing by Dylan Jordan, who really hasn’t had a poor start since being called up to A ball. Meanwhile, they put up 15 of their own against a solid Fresno club.
I do say Angels fans would be freaking out a little had the team drafted Holliday (not that anybody should freak out this early over an 18 year old’s challenges in pro ball) – it’s only 42 PAs, but the kid has debuted with a prodigious 40%+ K rate.
Meanwhile, the kid the Nats chose over Holliday has only struck out once in his first 21 tries, and has an OBP of .524.
It’s very early days, but I think those who guffawed at Eli Willits going #1 might be holding Washington’s beer at the moment.
And we thought the Halos might take him, and maybe would have had the Nats taken Holiday.
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7-3 score, and it wasn’t even that close. Of course it wasn’t even that close when they were down 7-0 in the 8th.
Man. That “stand pat for the boys” and “sweep Doyerz!” euphoria has certainly worn off. What do you think guys? Has knowing that Logan and Neto aren’t sad that we traded some guys been worth also knowing that Ward has half his trade value gone and Jansen has all of it gone along with anyone else we might have moved? And no. Being willing to move Soler and Rengifo at the deadline doesn’t mean you weren’t a stay the course guy.
Do we really believe the players are any type of happy right now? They’re looking at the future and thinking “yep, this is gonna be cool.”?
Ready for more of the same next year? I know I am cause I have no choice.
We can’t even get a top draft pick out of this slide.
Those silly hobo A’s are 1.5 games back of us.
Reload!
Need Arte to get a raging boner about poaching a GM who has done the job before. Arte forced Eppler to bring on Maddon so now need Arte to pull the kiddy stool out from underneath the current GM.
Yep, more of the same. Some core players with Peraza vs Moncada manning 3rd base.
I’d like to respond to two comments from the game thread.
Downing Dude correctly notes that Ohtani “broke” Trout with that strikeout and that is why I hate the movie “The Natural”. They changed the ending. In the book Trout…I mean Hobbs comes to the plate and … well, does not hit a homerun but has a more Trout-like at-bat. Because, as Malamud knew, the new true phenom always replaced the old.
The other thing is gitch’s trade suggestions. It’s probably true that all fans, or almost all, value their players more highly than others do. Even a quality player like Neto is an acceptable starter. I’d love to have nine Netos. One, however, does little for us. Ward, Adell, maybe Schanuel are acceptable but we would need five batters better than them to really compete. Trout is fixable someplace else.
Of course Perry is not going to do anything bold like gitch suggested but at this point I’d rather have a highly rated farm than the 11th best team in the AL (out of 15)
Darn it! I have The Natural hard cover awaiting the day when I have “time enough at last” à la Burgess Meredith in that epic Twilight Zone episode. Now I don’t need to read The Natural.
Good book,,though, one of my favorite baseball novels. Another good one is that stratomatic style thing, the universal baseball association
I’m a no on trading the face of the franchise.
Re: Trout … I have no comment other than it’s been nice seeing him healthy for the majority of the season.
Franchises can always get a new face.
Can’t trade Trout unless Trout wants to be traded, and with his kid in little league and having friends where they are, that will probably weigh heavy on Mrs. Trout, who will be the one to ultimately tip the scales.
Things look a lot different when Trout realizes he’ll play with Mark Canha and Josh Bell for two years and then start losing at bats to children. They have Little League in New Jersey. Players move. It’s not gonna be a shock.
A Trout trade looks like more of a buyout and it is certainly plausible that Mike will feel it might rejuvenate him cuz this Angel franchise has bad ju-ju.
Trout’s ability to hit the heat had already decayed before the “Ohtani exclamation point” and I said at the time, Trouts inability to make that AB happen with the world watching in would have a large overhang during their last year together and seasons to come.
Not against trading anyone but trading Neto for prospects is not the correct move. Get me major league talent along with a top prospect and I’m listening.
I have been a supporter of Trout through the “lean” years. I am tiring of it… I am disappointed that he is not adjusting his approach. I feel he still has alot of talent and certainly has the knowledge to make adjustments… but for whatever reason he is not doing it. One would think at this point he would cut down on the power swing and sacrifice the HR totals simply to make more consistent contact. Why has he not done this ?
Perhaps part of the problem is that the team continues to throw him out there batting 3rd game after game when he really should be batting 6th…. Maybe Mike would waive his no trade clause in the off-season? We need to hope he can either finish this year strong or start next season with a hot streak so we can trade him (eating much of the salary of course) and hope to get a major league player or two back in return …
The Trout being ruined by Ohtani thing is pure myth. When Ohtani threw that pitch by Trout ending the WBC, Trout was already significantly on the decline due to many factors including advancing age but mostly because of repeated injuries. His OPS had already fallen to around .850 and actually increased (albeit on an injury shortened season) in ‘24. Ohtani threw a fastball by Trout who had been having lots of problems hitting fastballs. Ohtani didn’t break Trout. Father Time and injuries broke Trout.
Bingo.
It’s the natural progression of all the lame speculation of “tension in the clubhouse” between those two because of that single AB.
I never got that. They didn’t look like best friends, but they looked like co-workers who were fine with each other and enjoy baseball.
But is it as good a story?
Well, we’re now 9 games out of the 3rd WC with 5 teams still in front of us but at least we’re playing meaningful games and we kept the gang together.
Neto and Adell are dawgs. Rest of the team? Not so much.
Kikuchi’s velo has been trending down for a minute now. Shut him down and trade him in the winter 🧠
It was dog night in Arlington. Ruff ruff!
Didn’t The Kuch have his best start of the season one or two starts ago? His “velo” is down? How much, one MPH? dude has been consistently sitting at 94-96 with his FB in most of his starts. He’s not a true #1 but he’s an above average starter and his contract is not exorbitant by MLB standards.
The starting lineup gave Wash a coronary,
FREE WASH!
Still ahead of Oakland
