Veteran right-hander Cal Quantrill will take over the starting spot of injured 10-game winner Nathan Eovaldi when the Texas Rangers face the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night in the third game of their four-game series in Anaheim, Calif.
Eovaldi, the team leader in wins, was placed on the 15-day injured list on Monday with right posterior elbow inflammation.
Quantrill (4-4, 3.56 ERA) has made 24 appearances on the season. Seven of the outings were starts between June 23 and Aug. 3, and then he returned to bullpen duty and pitched a scoreless inning of relief in Saturday’s 5-1 victory over Baltimore. Prior to that, he went 1-4 as a starter.
The 31-year-old Quantrill has been a starter for the majority of his big league career with 156 starts in 211 appearances. He is 1-1 with a 3.35 ERA in nine career appearances (seven starts) against Los Angeles. He has faced the Angels once in relief this season, allowing three hits over three shutout innings in a 9-6 loss on May 22 at Angel Stadium.
Rookie right-hander George Klassen (0-1, 7.27 ERA) will make his fourth career start for Los Angeles, which snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory on Tuesday.
Klassen, who has never faced the Rangers, went 0-1 with a 11.57 ERA in two starts against Seattle and Cincinnati in early April before being optioned down to Triple-A Salt Lake on April 12 to work on, among other things, his control. In those first two games, he walked 10 and struck out six batters in 4 2/3 total innings.
Klassen was recalled from the Bees on Friday after compiling a 2.57 ERA over his previous 12 starts while also having a stretch of 65 batters without a walk.
He started a 4-3 win at Miami against the Marlins that same day and allowed one run on four hits in four innings with three strikeouts but still battled control problems, walking four, including Kyle Stowers to force in a run. However, he bounced back to get All-Star Otto Lopez on a comebacker to get out of the bases-loaded jam on his 83rd and final pitch of the outing.
“A whole lot better,” Klassen said of his performance to the Orange County Register. “Definitely a big step in the right direction tonight. Still a couple of things you need to work on, but a lot more positives to take away from it.”
Texas missed a chance to leapfrog Houston into first place in the American League West with a win; the Astros lost 4-1 to the San Francisco Giants.
For the Rangers, it was their fourth loss in five games this season against Los Angeles at Angel Stadium. The Rangers won the series opener, 4-1, in 10 innings on Monday.
Texas, which is just 17-21 against A.L. West opponents, took a 1-0 lead when Joc Pederson led off with a long home run to center, but the Rangers managed just five singles the rest of the way and finished 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. A bright spot was the performance of starter Cody Bradford, who allowed three runs on five hits over seven innings in his second start since returning from internal brace surgery to his left elbow.
“Definitely a frustrating night,” Texas manager Skip Schumaker said. “With Cody giving us exactly what we needed after a long day (Monday) with multiple guys used in the bullpen, was hoping the offense was going to pick us up. Joc had a great night at the top of the lineup and set the tone with his big home run, (but) just really nothing to show for it after that.”
-Field Level Media
