Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

On Wed, July 8, the Los Angeles Angels played against the Texas Rangers in the middle game of a three-game series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Tex. This game came on the heels of a seven-game losing streak for the Angels, who were swept in series against the Seattle Mariners on the road and Boston Red Sox at home before losing the opening game of this series in Texas 8-3. But some good news occurred as Mike Trout was reactivated off the injured list with a right hamstring injury that had kept him sidelined for the past few weeks. Any worries about Trout’s status for the 2026 MLB All-Star Game in Philadelphia have been assuaged for now as Trout was the designated hitter in the Halos’ lineup in this game. Walbert Ureña was the starter for the Angels, while the Rangers countered with MacKenzie Gore, who had pitched well against the Halos in his career but didn’t have any wins against them entering this contest.

The game started with a leadoff double by Zach Neto and Trout’s first at-bat in three weeks was a strikeout against Gore. Vaughn Grissom then came up as the starting first baseman and he hit a first pitch fastball from Gore out to left field. Neto raced home and scored as Grissom had an RBI single. After the Halos’ bats left Grissom on first base, Ureña came in and had an efficient bottom of the first. Ureña got himself into a bit of a jam in the bottom of the second as he gave up a couple of walks to Evan Carter and Alejandro Osuna with one out. But he got Elias Díaz to line out and got Nicky Lopez to ground out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the third, Ureña gave up his first hit of the game as Josh Smith hit a ball out to left field for a single. Smith tried to get to second base, but Josh Lowe picked up the ball and hurled it in to Oswald Peraza, who tagged out Smith for a fantastic defensive play. Ureña struck out Jake Burger in the next at-bat to end the inning. In the top of the fourth, Grissom hit a leadoff single and Jo Adell came up to bat. On the second pitch thrown by Gore, Adell swung and made contact with a sinker that traveled out to right field. The ball sailed over the fence for a two-run shot for Adell, who hit his 12th home run of the season. The Halos were up 3-0 and looked to score more runs as Denzer Guzman hit an infield single and Jose Siri got another single. But Gore didn’t surrender any more runs in the fourth inning. In the bottom of the fourth, Ureña got into another jam as his lack of command in the strike zone was showing. Five walks were given up by Ureña in this game as his pitch count was soaring up way high early on. A good defensive play by Guzman in throwing out the speedy Carter helped get the second out of the inning, but Osuna walked after winning an ABS challenge on a full count. Diaz was up next and representing the game-tying run for the Rangers, but Ureña struck him out on a sweeper to end the scoring threat.

In the top of the fifth, Neto led off with his second double of the night and Trout worked a walk against Gore. Grissom came up next and he hit a curveball out to left field that brought Neto home to score on an RBI single. Now up 4-0, the Halos were on the verge of driving Gore out of the game. Adell came up with runners on the corners and on the second pitch he saw, he launched a ball out to deep left center. It was a no-doubter as Adell hit a three-run shot to increase the Angels’ lead to 7-0. A multi-HR game for Adell, who has nine of them in his career and had one two months ago against the Toronto Blue Jays on Mother’s Day. With five RBIs on two home runs, Adell also had attained a career-high in runs batted in for a single game.

Samy Natera Jr entered to pitch in the bottom of the fifth as Ureña was done after four uneven innings. Natera struck out the side and ended up getting five strikeouts in his two innings of work. In the top of the sixth, Gavin Collyer came in to pitch for Texas and he walked Josh Lowe before giving up a pop-up single to Neto. After Trout grounded out in advancing both runners into scoring position, Grissom came up having gone three-for-three against Gore. On a 1-2 count against Collyer, Grissom hit a sweeper that was way off the plate down the right field line and it landed fair. A two-run double brought in Lowe and Neto as the Angels went up 9-0.

The game was basically won at this point, but for a cherry on top Trout came up in the top of the eighth and he launched a changeup from Robby Ahlstrom to deep left center field for a two-run shot. 18 home runs on the season for the All-Star bound Trout, who is now just two big flies away from tying Edwin Encarnación on the all-time MLB home run list. Texas did score one run in this game on a solo shot by Kyle Higashioka to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Higashioka actually pitched as a position player with his team down by ten runs in the top of the ninth and he threw a 43 mph curveball that accidentally hit Adell, who was trying to become the first Halos player to hit three home runs in a game since Torii Hunter in Jun 2009. Hunter was in the Angels’ dugout as an assistant coach and he laughed seeing Adell get hit. The Halos scored a couple of more runs in the top of the ninth before Mitch Farris closed out the game.

An impressive 13-1 victory over the Rangers broke this season-long seven-game losing streak and with nine combined RBIs between the three and four hitters in the lineup in Grissom and Adell, the Angels got back onto the winning track for at least one night. Neto scored three runs and Trout scored twice as well in this satisfying victory. Natera was credited with the first major league victory in his career. The series is evened up as the finale will feature a pitchers duel between the birthday boy Reid Detmers(who turned 27 years old tonight) and Nathan Eovaldi. The final series before the All-Star Break will be against the Minnesota Twins and hopefully with no unexpected slip-ups, Mike Trout will appear in his first All-Star Game in seven years. With a 37-56 record, the Angels currently hold the worst record in MLB, but with Trout back in the fold, they can perhaps improve their record in the next few weeks.