Logan O’Hoppe homers twice, but Angels fall to Rangers

Adolis García broke out of a one-for-19 slump with a solo homer in the eighth inning, and the Texas Rangers extended their winning streak to a season-high five games, defeating the Angels 5-4 on Tuesday night.

García was batting .115 in July (three for 26) before he drove a sinker from Luis García (3-1) into the elevated stands in right-center. Despite the struggles at the plate, García has reached base in 17 of his last 18 games.

“It was awesome because it helped the team win. That’s the most important thing right now,” García said through an interpreter. “It was a big moment for me but it helped the team win.”

García had hard-hit balls in his first two at-bats, but ended up grounding into a double play and lining out to the outfield.

“He didn’t have much to show for it, and didn’t get down about it. He goes up there and hits a home run to put us ahead,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s a guy that carried us last year. If we can get him going, it’s going to be more fun around here.”

The Angels lost for the eighth time in nine games despite two homers and three hits from Logan O’Hoppe.

The Angels had a chance to take the lead in the seventh inning. They had the bases loaded with two out after Anthony Rendon drew a walk off José Leclerc (4-4), but Nolan Schanuel grounded out to first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.

“We put ourselves in position to do something really good but we couldn’t get that hit,” Angels manager Ron Washington said.

Josh Smith, a surprise omission from the All-Star Game roster, had three hits, including a home run in the first inning.

After two failed bunt attempts, Smith lined a changeup over the center of the plate from Angels starter Roansy Contreras off the auxiliary scoreboard above the wall in right-center. The solo shot also knocked out power to some of the panels on the scoreboard.

Texas’ Kirby Yates gave up a two-out single to Zach Neto in the ninth but struck out Jo Adell to earn his 14th save.

It was the second career two-homer game for O’Hoppe. His 14 homers are tied with Lance Parrish for the most by an Angels catcher before the All-Star Game.

Both of O’Hoppe’s solo shots tied the score. His second-inning homer over the left-center wall made it 1-1. In the fourth inning, he lined a fastball from Max Scherzer that just made it over the outstretched glove of center fielder Leody Taveras and knotted it at 4-all.

“I watched him growing up a ton. He’s been dominant his whole career, but it doesn’t matter being on the losing end,” said O’Hoppe about his big game against Scherzer.

Texas scored three times in the third to take a 4-1 lead. The Rangers’ first five batters got aboard, including a ground-rule, RBI double by Marcus Semien and Smith’s run-scoring single, which ended Contreras’ night. Texas’ other run came on Wyatt Langford’s sacrifice fly, which brought in Semien.

The Angels got within 4-3 in the bottom of the inning on Schanuel’s run-scoring double. Schanuel then came home on Taylor Ward’s single to the right-field gap, with Texas’ Derek Hill misplaying the ball for an error.

Up next

Rangers right-hander Michael Lorenzen (5-4, 3.21 ERA) takes the mound in the series finale. Right-hander Griffin Canning (3-9, 4.87 ERA) will go for the Angels.