Photos by Dominic Ceraldi
The Texas Rangers blew their fifth lead of the season on Friday night, falling to the Los Angeles Angels by a score of 9-6. The Angels came out firing immediately as Shohei Ohtani took Rangers opener Matt Bush deep on the first pitch of the game. After Albert Abreu relieved Bush, Jo Adell added another solo home run in the second inning. Just as they did the night before, the Rangers overcame a 2-0 deficit and took the lead. In the fourth inning, Charlie Culberson came through with a big two-run double that gave Texas a 3-2 lead. However, the story of the night came three batters later. After Eli White and Marcus Semien reached to load the bases, Angels manager Joe Maddon elected to intentionally walk Corey Seager, driving in a run to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead. Texas added two more runs on a Mitch Garver sacrifice fly and a balk by Angels pitcher Austin Warren, completing a five-run frame. Seager became the third player in MLB’s expansion era (since 1969) to be intentionally walked with the bases loaded. The other two were Barry Bonds in 1998 and Rangers Hall of Famer Josh Hamilton in 2008. Maddon was also at the helm of the opposing team when Hamilton was walked intentionally. The Rangers, however, failed to hold their 6-2 lead for long. The Angels answered immediately with a five-run inning of their own, highlighted by a two-run blast off the bat of Ohtani, his second home run of the night. Rangers pitcher Kolby Allard was tagged with all five runs in the frame. “We needed him to get through that inning,” said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. “I know we have (a lot of) bullpen guys down there. … But the lack of execution at times is hurting us. In that inning, there was just too many mistakes.” The Halos added two more runs in the seventh inning when Jared Walsh took Josh Sborz deep to the opposite field.
