Adolis Garcia, Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Kyle Higashioka all had home runs as the surging Texas Rangers took advantage of a dearth of pitching from Los Angeles while pounding the reeling Angels 20-3 on Wednesday to capture a three-game series between the American League West rivals in Arlington, Texas.
The Rangers took the final two games of the set and have won five of their past six games to stay within shouting distance in the Wild Card race. It’s the first time that Texas has scored 20 runs in a game since July 25, 2011 against Minnesota and tied for the third most in team history.
Eleven of those runs (10 earned) came off Los Angeles starter Jack Kochanowicz (3-11), who was recalled from Triple A Salt Lake on Wednesday to take the ball when Tyler Anderson was late in returning from paternity leave.
Jacob Webb (5-4), the second of five Rangers pitchers, was the beneficiary of the offensive outburst after going 1 2/3 innings in relief of spot starter Jacob Latz.
Texas finished with 22 hits, led by four hits and five RBI from Garcia and five RBI by Pederson. Every Rangers player that batted had at least one hit.
The Angels struck first as Joe Adell’s two-out double in the opening frame drove home Taylor Ward.
Texas wasted little time responding. Garcia’s three-run homer in the bottom of the frame plated Wyatt Langford and Corey Seager. The Rangers added a fourth run in the inning when Higashioka’s sacrifice fly allowed Pederson to score from third.
Pederson’s three-run round tripper off the top of the right field fence in the second drove in Langford and Seager and pushed the Rangers’ advantage to 7-1.
Seager then added to the margin in the fourth with a two-run blast, with Langford trotting home in front of him. Later in the inning Pederson’s single drove home Garcia, and Higashioka’s RBI single pushed across Pederson to make it 11-1.
Christian Moore homered off Latz to lead off the fifth but the Rangers responded when Ezequiel Duran doubled home Langford in the bottom of the frame.
The game really came apart in the seventh when Los Angeles used two position players — third baseman Oswaldo Peraza and first baseman Niko Kavadas — as pitchers. Texas scored eight runs in the inning, highlighted by Garcia’s two-run double and Higashioka’s three-run home run.
