The Tampa Bay Rays could become the answer to this trivia question: Who are the only two teams the Los Angeles Angels have swept in 2026?
The Angels will look to add the Rays to their short list of sweep victims — the Texas Rangers are the other — when they host them on Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif.
Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (2-2, 8.10 ERA) will make his sixth start since missing almost two years with assorted injuries. The Rays, who have lost four straight road games and eight of their last nine away from Florida, will use right-hander reliever Casey Legumina (2-1, 3.07 ERA) as an opener.
Rodriguez is 3-0 with a 2.16 ERA in four career starts against Tampa Bay with the last one coming in 2024 before he was shut down for the season on July 31. He missed all of 2025.
He picked up a no-decision in his most recent start, a 5-4 loss in 10 innings to the Houston Astros on Monday. He allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits over 5 1/3 innings, walked two and struck out six while averaging 97 mph with his four-seam fastball.
Legumina will be making his second career start. He is 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA in eight career appearances against Los Angeles.
Los Angeles tied a season-high four-game win streak with a 8-0 victory on Saturday, pounding out 15 hits in the process. Jo Adell went 4-for-5 with a double and three runs, and Jose Siri smacked a two-run homer for the Angels.
It was the third four-hit game of Adell’s career and second in a week.
The Angels, 12-8 over their last 20 games, will be trying for their first five-game win streak in over a year. The last time that happened was May 16-23, 2025, when they won eight in a row.
Jose Soriano, hit in the right chest area by a 105 mph comebacker by Jonathan Aranda in the first inning, picked up his eighth win, allowing three hits and striking out five over five innings. He left after throwing just 76 pitches.
“We just wanted to be really cautious,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “It was smoked right off his chest. He gave us five good innings, and we felt like that was the right time to get him out of there.”
Soriano said it was actually his left hip, not his chest, that was bothering him.
“I was trying to get away from the ball, and when I tried, I just felt my leg (get) stuck,” Soriano told The Orange County Register. “That’s when I started feeling a little bit sore. And every inning, it felt a little bit worse.”
Soriano said he doesn’t expect the hip injury to sideline him.
“I feel I can be good for my next outing,” he said. “We’ll just keep working on that and I’m gonna be good.”
Tampa Bay managed just five singles but also walked four times in Saturday’s loss. The Rays were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and have scored just three runs on 12 hits in the first two games.
“Our offense is going through it a little bit right now,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash admitted. “We’ll come out of it. We just need to find a way to get a couple of those big hits in bunches.”
–Field Level Media
