Nolan Schanuel drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth inning, propelling the Los Angeles Angels to a dramatic 6-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Monday night.
Travis d’Arnaud powered the Angels’ offense early with a two-run homer off Rangers ace Jacob deGrom and finished the night with three RBI.
Texas struck quickly when Corey Seager belted a two-run home run off Yusei Kikuchi just two batters into the game. Josh Smith later tied the game in the eighth with an RBI double.
In the bottom of the ninth, Luis Rengifo doubled off reliever Chris Martin (0-5), and after a one-out single by Kevin Newman, the Rangers intentionally walked Zach Neto to load the bases. Left-hander Hoby Milner entered to face Schanuel in a lefty-lefty showdown. Schanuel battled back from an 0-2 count and took a full-count changeup below the zone to force his second career walk-off RBI in the winning run.
The Angels had taken a 5-4 lead in the sixth when Rengifo singled with two outs, followed by an RBI double from d’Arnaud and a pinch-hit run-scoring single by LaMonte Wade Jr.
But Texas pulled even in the eighth against reliever Sam Bachman. After a wild pitch on strike three allowed Jake Burger to reach base, Smith drove him in from first with a double.
The expected duel between All-Star starters didn’t fully meet the billing. DeGrom allowed three runs and five hits over five innings, while Kikuchi yielded four runs on six hits in his five-inning stint.
Key Moment
In the top of the ninth, Sam Haggerty reached on a fielding error by Zach Neto, but Luis Rengifo turned a sharply hit grounder by Seager into a key 4-6-3 double play. Kenley Jansen (2-2) then froze Marcus Semien on a called third strike to keep the score tied heading into the bottom half.
Key Stat
Mike Trout’s sacrifice fly in the first and d’Arnaud’s two-run homer in the second ended deGrom’s streak of 14 straight starts allowing two or fewer earned runs while throwing at least five innings, a run dating back to April 18.
Up Next
The Angels send José Soriano (6-5, 3.72 ERA) to the mound on Tuesday night to face Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (5-3, 1.75 ERA).
