Minutes after his team squandered a chance to move into a first-place tie in the American League West, Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker already was looking forward to Thursday night’s game vs. the Los Angeles Angels in Arlington, Texas.
“They’re big-leaguers,” Schumaker said following his team’s 13-1 drubbing at the hands of the Angels on Wednesday. “You flush this one quick and move on to tomorrow as quick as you can.”
Los Angeles finished with 15 hits, including two homers and a career-best five RBIs by Jo Adell, and a 438-foot home run from Mike Trout in his first game since injuring his right hamstring on June 17.
The Rangers, who posted an 8-3 win in the series opener on Tuesday, finished with just three hits on Wednesday, including a home run by Kyle Higashioka in the bottom of the eighth inning.
“There haven’t been too many of those games this year,” Schumaker said. “I think we’re going to come back and have a chance to win tomorrow. I think that will be the true test, and the sign of a winning team and not a .500 team. That’s going to be the true test of a winning a series after a tough day like it was tonight, with ‘Evo’ on the mound.”
“Evo” is right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (9-7, 4.02 ERA), who is 7-4 with a 3.10 ERA in 17 career appearances (15 starts) against the Angels. He is 4-0 with a 3.24 ERA since June 14, with 33 strikeouts and just four walks.
The Angels will counter with left-hander Reid Detmers (3-6, 4.13 ERA), who is 3-3 with a 4.04 ERA in 17 career appearances (11 starts) against Texas. He fared well in his last outing against them on May 24, when he retired 24 of the 25 batters he faced, including the last 21 in a row while striking out a career-high 14 batters in the Angels’ 2-1 victory.
Jake Burger hit a solo home run in the second inning for the only hit allowed by Detmers.
Detmers threw a no-hitter against Tampa Bay in May 2022 but told The Orange County Register he thought he actually had better stuff in the start against Texas.
“A no-hitter’s a no-hitter,” Detmers said. “Stuff-wise, this is probably the best game, but nothing’s going to beat a no-hitter.”
The Angels got a big boost before Wednesday’s game when Trout was activated off the injured list.
He had been sidelined since injuring his right hamstring on June 17. The three-time AL MVP hit his 18th home run of the season in the eighth inning off reliever Robby Ahlstrom and also walked and scored another run on the second of Adell’s two home runs.
“I think the most important thing was for him to get out there and get at-bats,” Los Angeles manager Kurt Suzuki said. “I guess never doubt him, right? Missed 2 1/2 weeks, comes back and hits a homer in his first game. It was pretty awesome.”
–Field Level Media
