The Los Angeles Angels will try to avoid matching a season-long seven-game losing streak when they open a three-game series with the Texas Rangers on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
The Angels (36-55), who own the worst record in baseball, lost seven in a row on April 24-May 1 and also had another six-game losing streak May 11-17.
Los Angeles has scored just 13 runs during its current six-game losing skid and enters off a 7-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night in Anaheim, Calif.
“It’s a tough stretch for us right now, but we’re grinding it out,” Angels shortstop Zach Neto said via the Orange County Register. “Pitchers are doing their job and the offense is just not. We’ve just got to be a little better.”
Neto hit a home run and had three hits in the loss but also committed an error that led to three runs.
The good news is that a very valuable offensive piece could be back in the lineup as soon as Tuesday.
All-Star centerfielder Mike Trout, sidelined with a right hamstring injury sustained on June 17, took batting practice and ran the bases each of the last two days before the team departed Anaheim. Trout, who was voted to his first All-Star Game since 2023 and 12th of his career on Saturday, is aiming for a midweek return.
Trout grew up in Millville, N.J., and was open about his goal to play in the All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park in nearby Philadelphia this season. He is batting .234 with 17 home runs, 12 doubles, 54 runs scored and 36 RBIs in 74 games.
“He’s going to tell us when (he’s ready to return),” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “There’s no timetable. When Trouty says he’s ready to go, he’s going to be ready to go, and we’ll get him going.”
Right-hander Jose Soriano (8-5, 3.42 ERA), who is 2-3 with a 2.81 ERA in seven career appearances (five starts) against the Rangers, gets the start in the series opener for Los Angeles. Soriano went 1-3 with a 3.63 ERA in four starts against Texas last season. He will be opposed by right-hander Jacob deGrom (7-5, 3.48 ERA).
deGrom is just 1-3 with a 5.22 ERA in six career starts against the Angels, including a 9-6 loss on May 22 at Angel Stadium where he allowed six runs on six hits in just three innings. Neto led off the bottom of the first with a home run, and Wade Meckler hit a three-run shot to highlight a four-run first inning for Los Angeles.
deGrom enjoyed a strong June, going 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA in six starts. He comes in off a 4-2 victory at Cleveland on June 30 that saw him allow two runs on four hits over seven innings while striking out nine. It marked the fifth time in his last seven starts that the two-time Cy Young Award winner went six-plus innings and allowed two runs or less.
Perhaps even more encouraging for the Rangers is that the 38-year-old deGrom showed no signs of slowing down, hitting 100.5 mph twice with his fastball in his last outing, his fastest since April 23, 2023. Five of his pitches hit at least 100 mph.
“That was probably my best fastball of the season,” deGrom said.
Texas has lost three of its last four games and sits at .500 (45-45) but is in second place in the A.L. West, 1 1/2 games behind the Seattle Mariners as of July 6.
–Field Level Media
