Texas Rangers at Los Angeles Angels

This is the MacKenzie Gore the Rangers envisioned when they acquired the lefty in a blockbuster deal last offseason, shipping five highly touted prospects to Washington. On the day the Rangers placed rotation horse Nathan Eovaldi on the injured list with right posterior elbow inflammation -- throwing its recently bolstered pitching depth into flux -- Gore continued a recent hot stretch. The 27-year-old struck out nine Angels across 5 1/3 innings of work, walking two with four hits allowed as the Rangers beat the Angels 4-1 in 10 innings in Monday’s series opener at Angel Stadium. Gore’s lone blemish was a first-inning solo home run to likely future Hall of Famer Mike Trout. “I think from here on out, every game, no matter who it is, is important,” Gore said. “I think these teams, we’ve seen them a lot, so there’s probably going to be some longer games like we had tonight. This was a gutsy win, a huge win in the first game of the series, and we come back and do it \[again\