Los Angeles’ Zach Neto will try to follow up a career night when the Angels face the Texas Rangers on Friday night in Arlington, Texas.
Neto set career highs with five hits and seven RBIs in the visiting Angels’ 18-3 drubbing of the Houston Astros on Thursday. Los Angeles took two of three games from the Astros to capture its first road series since May 26-28 at Detroit.
Texas won the decisive contest of its series from the Washington Nationals on Thursday, as Jacob deGrom allowed one hit over six scoreless innings for the Rangers and crossed the 2,000-strikeout plateau.
The Rangers will look for revenge after dropping three of four games against the Angels from Aug. 10-13.
Los Angeles’ Reid Detmers (4-8, 3.78 ERA) will oppose Texas’ MacKenzie Gore (7-9, 4.45) on Friday in a battle of left-handers.
Detmers is 1-2 with a 1.83 ERA and 44 strikeouts and eight walks over his last six outings (34 1/3 innings). He turned in his best start of the season in his most recent game, striking out 11 batters and scattering two hits over eight scoreless innings in a 1-0 win over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday.
“That’s what an ace does,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “And he pitched like that tonight and was just in control the whole time. Really never any nervous at-bats. You could see he was locked in. He was hitting his spots, and they weren’t picking up his slider.”
Detmers is 3-3 with a 4.22 ERA in 19 career appearances (13 starts) vs. the Rangers. He will make his fourth start of the season against them. All three so far have been no-decisions.
Detmers received one against Texas on Aug. 10 despite allowing one run on three hits over six innings. He experienced the same fate vs. the Rangers on July 9 when he gave up five runs on seven hits (three of them homers) in four innings. And he also got a no-decision against them on May 24, allowing one run over eight innings while striking out a career-high 14 batters.
Gore has not gotten past the sixth inning in his past three starts, but Texas has won each time. Last Saturday, he allowed three runs on eight hits in 5 2/3 innings to beat the Athletics 5-3.
Gore is 0-2 with a 4.13 ERA in five career appearances (all starts) against the Angels. Friday’s game will mark his fourth start this season vs. the club; he has an 0-1 record thus far.
On Aug. 10, he gave up a run over 5 1/3 innings and struck out nine in a no-decision. He was hit hard and took the loss on July 8, allowing seven runs on nine hits over five innings. In the May 24 contest, he took a no-decision after giving up a run over six innings.
Against the Astros on Thursday, Denzer Guzman homered and Vaughn Grissom had three hits. Neto, with a three-run homer, double and three singles, became the first Angel to record seven RBIs since Shohei Ohtani in 2022.
“Felt good. Seeing the ball well,” Neto said. “My teammates put me in a really good spot to hit.”
Despite the Angels’ offensive outburst, the news was not all good. Left fielder Wade Meckler exited in the fifth inning after getting hit on the head by a pitch, and first baseman Nolan Schanuel left in the sixth with right side soreness. Meckler was being evaluated for a concussion after the game.
In Arlington, Corey Seager produced his fourth straight two-hit game with a solo homer and a double. Ezequiel Duran reached four times with two hits and two walks, and the bullpen provided three scoreless innings.
“The defense was unbelievable tonight,” Texas manager Skip Schumaker said. “The bullpen locked it down, but clean defense is why we locked it down also.”
–Field Level Media
