Angels’ Trout homers twice as Rangers lose 4th straight

Mike Trout homered twice and drove in four runs and the visiting Los Angeles Angels defeated the Texas Rangers 6-2 on Wednesday night in Arlington, Texas. The Angels have won two straight against the Rangers following the death of teammate Tyler Skaggs. The team's starting pitcher was found dead on Monday on the afternoon in the team hotel just before the start of the series against Texas.

Jaime Barria (3-2) was announced as the Angels starter on Wednesday afternoon and he went five innings, allowing two runs and four hits. He struck out a career-high eight and walked two. Kole Calhoun had three singles in the leadoff spot for the Angels, Shohei Ohtani doubled twice and Dustin Garneau also had two hits and scored a run.

Tim Federowicz homered and doubled for Texas, which struck out 16 times en route to its fourth straight loss. Ariel Jurado (5-4) allowed six runs and seven hits in six innings for the Rangers. He struck out seven and walked two.

Jurado struck out all three batters looking in the first inning, then gave up four runs in the third. The Angels recalled Matt Thaiss from Triple-A Salt Lake and he started at third base in his major league debut. Thaiss was needed after All-Star-bound infielder Tommy La Stella fouled a pitch off his shin on Tuesday night and sustained a right tibia fracture that will keep him out eight to 10 weeks.

Thaiss doubled and scored in the third before Trout came up in the same inning with two runners aboard and lifted an 0-1 fastball over the fence in right for a 4-0 lead. Federowicz doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Elvis Andrus in the third, and he hit a solo homer to lead off the fifth to make it 4-2.

The Angels reclaimed a four-run lead in the sixth, though. Trout hit a line-drive homer down the left line to lead off the inning, his 24th homer of the season and eighth against Texas in 2019. Ohtani followed with a double into the gap in right-center and scored on a single to left by Justin Upton, who left in the sixth inning because of tightness in his left quad.

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