Angels blast off after long rain delay and best Rangers with a hit parade

Angels 11 Rangers 7

If you are reading this Saturday night/Sunday Morning, congrats for being one of the few people who stuck around for 5.5+ hours to finally see the conclusion of this one that ended close to 1AM local local time. It will be a quick turn around for both teams since the next pitch between them will be just over 11 hours after their last pitch.

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Offense was not a problem in this one. Perhaps the extra long delay gave the players extra time in the cage because runs were scored in each of the first 4 innings. The Rangers drew first blood with back to back hits that drove in the first run of the night. Mr. Albert Pujols answered back in the 2nd with home run #633 of his career (19 on the year).

The Rangers would score another in the 2nd but the Angels took their first lead of the game with a pair of runs in the 3rd and 3 more in the 4th off a David Fletcher bases loaded (and clearing) double. Fletcher is now hitting .343 with runners in scoring position this year.

Sadly that lead didn’t last long because after the Angels sent 7 batters to the plate in the 4th, the Rangers sent 8 of their own and plated 4 runs to tie up the game.

Angels struck again with a David Fletcher’s second hit of the night followed by an Upton single on a beautiful hit and Run and then Pujols’ 4th RBI of the night. The Machine!!! Pujols was on base 4 times in this game with 4 RBIs. And then...

Scene: Globe Life Park, rainy evening. Enter: Shohei Ohtani pinch hitting for Rene Rivera. Say goodbye baseball!! Dead center field. Angels were up 10-6 this point and never looked back. Shortly after, Taylor Ward knocked out his own home run - the first of his big league career.

Every single Angel except Andrelton Simmons hit in this one with 6 Angels putting up multi hit games.