Texas Rangers at Los Angeles Angels

After going 16 straight games of being held to four runs or fewer, the Angels finally broke out for five runs on Wednesday and carried that over into another strong showing against Rangers ace Jacob deGrom before he left due to injury on Thursday. The Angels racked up 15 hits, their second-highest total of the season, with superstar Mike Trout recording three hits for a second straight game in a 7-0 win over Texas on Thursday night at Angel Stadium. It gave the Angels the series win after they reeled off three straight victories over Texas, and it also sealed an overall winning record against the Rangers, as the Angels are 7-3 in the season series with three more games next week in Texas. “That felt good,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Obviously, deGrom on the mound, it's never an easy task. So a lot of credit to the guys, a lot of credit to the hitting coaches preparing them. And for them to carry out the plan at the plate, and really just having great at-bats from top to bottom.” It marked the first time the Angels had scored at least five runs in consecutive games since July 8-9 against Texas, while Trout hadn’t registered consecutive three-hit games since doing it in three straight from May 4-6, 2018. They also moved past the Athletics for sole possession of fourth place in the AL West for the first time since April 29, and improved to 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA since dismissing coaches Mike Maddux, Darryl Scott and Dom Chiti on Tuesday. All nine batters had a hit on Thursday, so it was a full team effort. “That's a good team over there, a team that's right in the hunt for the Wild Card, and we went out and took a four-game series from them,” said right fielder Josh Lowe. “So it kind of shows us that we can go toe-to-toe with anybody, especially when our offense gets going. It was a good night.” Right-hander Walbert Ureña was the beneficiary of the offense, and he kept up his impressive rookie season with six scoreless innings to outduel deGrom. Ureña scattered just two hits and two walks with five strikeouts to improve to 8-8 with a 2.67 ERA in 22 appearances (20 starts) this year. Ureña became the first Angels rookie starter to win at least eight games in a season since Jaime Barria won 10 in 2018. “It was great,” Ureña said. “I just stayed with my same routine. Just trying to go out and having fun and making pitches.”