ARLINGTON, Texas — The Angels are finally heading home.
The grueling start to their season came to an end with a 5-3 loss to the Texas Rangers on Thursday night.
The Angels began the season with 15 of their first 18 games on the road. No team had played with that many road games in their first 18 since 1957. A schedule switch because of hurricane damage to Tropicana Field in Tampa led to extra road games.
Although the Angels lost the last four games and five of the past six, they nonetheless went 9-9. They did so without shortstop Zach Neto, who might be returning to the lineup when they get home on Friday.
Viewed from that perspective, the Angels did well to play .500 baseball.
However, considering that they won their first four series and brought an 8-4 record into the last two series in Texas, the record seems disappointing.
They did a little of everything wrong against the Rangers, but the biggest problem was that they scored just four runs in the three games. They have scored just 14 runs in their last six games.
On Thursday night, they scored one in the first inning on a Jorge Soler RBI single, and two in the fifth on a Luis Rengifo single. Mike Trout was then at the plate with two runners on, needing a single to tie the score or an extra-base hit to give the Angels the lead, but he struck out.
Trout has one hit in his last 17 at-bats, dropping his average to .179. He still has a .752 OPS because he’s hit six home runs.
Trout’s strikeout started a string of 13 consecutive outs to finish the game for the Angels.
On the mound, Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz allowed four runs in 4⅔ innings.
Normally, Kochanowicz gets plenty of ground balls, but this time he was leaving his sinker up and the Rangers were getting it in the air. Five of the eight hits he allowed were in the air, including an Adolis Garcia homer.
Kochanowicz only got four groundouts among the 14 outs he recorded.
After winning a spot in the rotation based on a strong finish to last season and a good spring, Kochanowicz has a 6.20 ERA through his first four starts.
More to come on this story.
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