The Texas Rangers embark on their final road trip of the first half looking to finish strong as they open a series against the AL West rival Los Angeles Angels.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Things are finally starting to line up nicely for the Texas Rangers. It’s about time, too; for a good stretch in May and June, Texas looked as if it were running into certain teams right when they were hitting their stride or were in the middle of hot streaks.
With a final road trip of the first half set to begin against the Los Angeles Angels, Ron Washington’s team seems to have cooled off since a scorching hot end of June right as the Rangers come to town.
That’s not to say that Texas should overlook the Anaheim denizens – with one week to go in the first half, they need all the wins that they can get, however they can get them.
Texas Rangers (42-48, 3rd Place AL West, 6.0 GB) @ Los Angeles Angels (37-52, 4th Place AL West, 10.5 GB)
Previously, for Los Angeles…
The Angels finished the month of June by winning seven of their last nine, sweeping Oakland, and taking three of four from the Tigers. It was a great finish to the month for a young, upstart team as they even came within a couple of games of overtaking the Rangers for third place in the AL West.
However, the good play hasn’t carried over into July. The Angels have lost five of six since the calendar flipped, including a revenge sweep by Oakland and losing three of three to the Cubs. In those games, they were outscored 27-13, including three shutout losses.
That’s been the issue for the Angels of late. They haven’t been able to produce enough hits and have struggled with converting with runners in scoring position. They are third worst in the American League when it comes to batting with opportunities to score. Of course, when those opportunities don’t even come, it becomes harder to convert the chances.
In the last six games, not only did the Angels get shut out three times, but they also were held to one run in a game against the Cubs. Cumulatively, in those four low scoring games, the Angels were only able to amass 14 hits total, an average of 3.5 hits per contest.
The Angels also boast one of the worst bullpens in the Majors – third worst, in fact – with a 4.70 ERA. Opponents aren’t hitting the bullpen hard, in fact they have one of the league’s lowest batting average against. They have, however, issued the fifth most walks and are in the top ten in home runs allowed. All in all, a low-scoring offense and a bad bullpen has been a recipe for losses in Washington’s first year with the Angels.
What to watch for
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Game 91, 8:38 PM CT – RHP Jon Gray (3-4, 3.92 ERA) vs. RHP Davis Daniel (1-1, 2.70 ERA)
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Game 92, 8:38 PM CT – RHP Max Scherzer (1-2, 2.70 ERA) vs. RHP Roansy Contreras (1-1, 4.04 ERA)
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Game 93, 8:38 PM CT – RHP Michael Lorenzen (5-4, 3.21 ERA) vs. RHP Griffin Canning (3-9, 4.87 ERA)
The last time that the Rangers took on the Angels, Los Angeles was in last place in the division and Texas might have taken them a little lightly. At that point, Texas was just 1.5 games behind Seattle for first place. The Angels were 5.5 games behind Texas. Now Los Angeles is 4.5 behind Texas and the Rangers find themselves looking up, not only at the Mariners with their six game division lead, but Houston is ahead of them too.
Back in May, Texas lost two of three to the Angels. This time, the Rangers appear to be on the rise as the Angels are on a downslide. Losing two of three would be an unacceptable outcome as Texas looks to begin digging themselves out of the hole in the West as the All-Star break nears.
The Rangers will turn to righties Jon Gray, Max Scherzer, and Michael Lorenzen in this series against the Angels. Gray, who was enjoying a very good stretch from May into mid-June has been roughed up in three of his last four starts. His most recent poor outing was against San Diego, as Gray allowed three runs but lasted just four innings.
Citing an issue mechanically that he couldn’t pinpoint, Gray has two more opportunities in the first half to overcome a recent poor stretch after what had been a superlative first few months.
Scherzer, meanwhile, will be making his fourth appearance since returning from injury to make his season debut back in late June. Two of the previous outings have seen Scherzer become the victim of an inconsistent offense to make him a hard luck loser. Last time out, against the Padres, Scherzer allowed three runs but the Texas offense couldn’t bail him out in a 3-2 loss.
Lorenzen’s last outing was in the opener of the sweep of Tampa Bay, an effort in which he struggled with command but toughed it out for five shutout innings. Lorenzen has been one of the most consistent pitchers for Texas all year and the former Angel will look to continue that in his second to last start of the first half.
The Angels will counter with all righties themselves – Davis Daniel, Roansy Contreras and Griffin Canning. Davis was just recalled at the end of June to make his first big league start. While he went eight scoreless against Oakland in his 2024 debut, he then gave up seven hits and five runs to the Athletics in his second start.
Contreras, normally operating out of the bullpen, is making his third opening appearance in a row. Against Oakland, he lasted just 2 ⅔ innings, giving up two earned runs on three hits while taking the loss. Canning is the only one of the three starters to have faced Texas before. He took a loss against the Cubs last time out, giving up four runs in 4 ⅓ innings. Against the Rangers, Canning has a career 4.88 ERA.
The last time Texas went out after a sweep, they got swept in the next series. The Rangers have been unable to sustain any momentum coming off major offensive outputs. The sweep against the Rays, however, had the look of a team that is starting to surge. As they finish out the last week of the first half, Texas needs to take the opportunity and avoid another backslide.
Do you think the Rangers will stay hot against the Angels? Share your predictions with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.