ARLINGTON, Texas — The Angels emphatically ended their losing streak.
After dropping seven straight games, mostly because of a struggling offense, the Angels got Mike Trout back in the lineup and let out their frustration with a 13-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night.
“Just being able to come in and really take care of business all the way around, and have one of those games where we really take it to somebody is good,” said Jo Adell, who hit two homers. “For us, it’s a confidence boost all the way around. Having Mike in the lineup adds a level of balance there, so it was good.”
Trout was back after nearly three weeks out with a hamstring injury. By the time he joined the offensive party, the Angels were already up by nine runs. On the 15th anniversary of his major league debut, Trout hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning. It was his 18th of the season.
Trout also drew a walk in the fifth inning, so he was on base for the second of Adell’s homers. Adell hit a two-run shot to right field in the fourth inning and blasted a three-run shot out to left-center in the fifth.
“When I’m working the ball to the right side with real power behind it, that’s when I know I’m kind of set up to hit all pitches,” Adell said. “Really our focus was to stay the other way and as pitches present themselves, then we can pull. But going into the game trying to pull the ball is a mistake. The opposite-field approach was good all the way through.”
Adell, who has 13 homers, had two chances to become the first Angels player since 2009 to hit three homers in a game. He grounded out in the sixth. In the ninth, he got to face catcher Kyle Higashioka, who hit him with a 43 mph pitch.
“I wasn’t seeing it too well, to be honest with you,” Adell said with a smile. “Once you get below 70 (mph), it gets tough.”
Zach Neto had three hits, including two doubles. He scored three times on Vaughn Grissom hits.
Grissom drove in four runs on four hits. It was his second career four-hit game. The other was on Sept. 6, 2022, in the 25th game of his career.
The Angels were overdue for this kind of a performance. They scored a total of 16 runs during the seven-game losing streak when their batting average was .206, they produced a .531 OPS and they struck out in 27% of their plate appearances.
During the streak the Angels did not have more than a two-run lead at any point. They only had a lead past the fourth inning in one game, their one-run lead in the seventh on Tuesday.
Unfortunately for Walbert Ureña, he didn’t last long enough to get a victory out of the offensive explosion.
Ureña needed 90 pitches to get through four innings. Even though he didn’t give up a run and he allowed only one hit, he walked five and got into too many deep counts.
“It wasn’t the best, man,” Ureña said. “My command wasn’t the best today. Walks. Behind in the counts always. But I got lucky. I know I didn’t give up a lot of runs, so I got out of my problems every inning.”
For as good as Ureña has been in compiling a 2.88 ERA, the next step for him will be to pitch more efficiently. He has gotten past five innings in only seven of his 15 starts. This was the fifth game in which he had allowed one run or no runs but still didn’t get to see the sixth inning because of his pitch count.
“A guy like that we would like him to go deeper, obviously, but for him to battle to get out of it, to slow the game down and make pitches when he needed to was great to see again,” Manager Kurt Suzuki said.
That left five innings for the Angels’ bullpen, which was still relatively fresh after an off day on Monday and pitching only two innings on Tuesday.
Left-hander Samy Natera Jr. struck out five of the six hitters he faced in two perfect innings, earning his first major league victory. Right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn, right-hander José Fermin and left-hander Mitch Farris each worked one inning.
It completed one of the Angels’ best all-around performances of the season.
“It was one through nine,” Grissom said. “All the pitchers contributed. Even (catcher Logan O’Hoppe) called a great game. … Obviously after a skid, to get one and get one big like that is nice.”