Rangers Beat Angels
ARLINGTON, Texas — Pitching against the Los Angeles Angels in Globe Life Park is usually a bad combination for Texas Rangers starter Colby Lewis.
On Friday night, Lewis ignored history and made the most of an 80-pitch performance in the Rangers’ 4-2 win.
Lewis (2-0) normally gets knocked around by the Angels in his home ballpark. In five starts the past two seasons, he is 0-4 with a 12.73 ERA.
Lewis, whose last win over the Angels in Arlington was in 2003, didn’t allow a walk or log a strikeout in seven innings. But he did get a lot of outs.
“It’s kind of a weird situation,” Lewis said. “I felt like I threw some really good pitches ahead in the count, but they were able to put the ball in play. Pitches that I throw where I get swings and misses, they were able to put enough on the bat to put it in play. A couple of 0-2 counts they got hits. Pretty frustrating.”
While Lewis struggled with strikeouts, closer Shawn Tolleson got two of them in
the ninth to post his eighth save of the season and seventh in a row.
The Rangers took a 4-2 lead in the sixth with a two-out, three-run rally against Angels starter Hector Santiago (2-1), who was 5-0 in seven previous starts in Texas.
Rougned Odor led off with a walk and, after a double play, Prince Fielder delivered his 1,000th RBI with a single up the middle.
Fielder and his father, Cecil, joined Barry and Bobby Bonds as the only major league father-son combos with 1,000 RBIs each.
“Being in the company of those guys is a big deal,” Fielder said. “Like I said, I’m very grateful for the success I’ve had. And more to come.”
Ian Desmond scored Fielder with a double to left and Mitch Moreland brought in another run on a grounder up the middle.
Moreland’s hit chased Santiago, who left after allowing eight hits in 99 pitches.
Catcher Geovany Soto provided the Angels’ offense in the first half of the game. Soto, who played for the Rangers from 2012 to 2014, homered to left field to lead off the third for a 1-0 lead.
In the fourth, Soto singled in Andrelton Simmons to make it 2-0. Soto’s hit was the third two-out single in a row off Lewis.
The Rangers’ Ryan Rua cut the Angels’ lead in half in the fifth with a no-doubter home run to left field. It was Rua’s first homer of the season.
The first inning featured some controversy. Odor successfully broke up a potential double play when he slid toward the outfield side of second base, undercutting Simmons.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia had a lengthy discussion with the umpires, given the new rules about takeout slides at second base, who eventually went to a replay review. The call was upheld.
“We were told that you couldn’t veer even if you could still touch the bag with your hand,” Scioscia said. “He obviously veered. Where he ended up was three feet to the outfield side of the bag. So I think we just have to grow with this rule and how it’s going to be interpreted.”
Replay didn’t do the Angels any favors in the sixth, either, when Albert Pujols was called out after initially advancing safely to second on a single by Kole Calhoun. The cameras caught Pujols lifting his foot off the base while the tag was being applied.
“I had my foot on the bag and I tried to switch my foot, and he had the glove on me,” Pujols said. “I don’t think that’s fair. Whatever. I tip my cap to their video guy and the manager; they challenged the play. The replay showed my foot was off just a hair.
“I don’t think that’s what replay was meant to be, but it is what it is. I have to adjust to that.”
