ARLINGTON, Texas — Each time the Angels play a solid game in this disappointing season, Manager Ron Washington says he’s expecting to eventually see those performances with more consistency.
This is a start. They’ve now managed a two-game winning “streak” each of the last two weeks.
The Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 9-3, on Friday night with an impressive all-around performance, after beating the St. Louis Cardinals by five runs on Wednesday. Last week’s two-game winning streak, which was their first since the opening week of the season, came against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
On Saturday, the Angels will have a shot at their first three-game winning streak since they won their fourth in a row on April 3.
None of that means much at this point, but the Angels (17-28) will take any encouraging signs they can get.
“I hope so,” Washington said when asked if this could be the start of consistently better baseball. “And it all starts with the pitching.”
Angels starter Tyler Anderson gave up one run in seven innings, beating the defending World Series champions.
Zach Neto and Taylor Ward hit homers. All told, the Angels had 14 hits, with eight of their nine starters collecting at least one. Five players drove in runs.
“The guys are starting to swing the bats,” Washington said. “Each night we don’t have to put up nine but at least give ourselves an opportunity by swinging those bats.”
Neto’s two-run homer in the fourth inning put the Angels on top to stay. He started the season slowly but has now hit .319 with a .907 OPS since May 4. He has hit three of his five homers in that span.
“He’s feeling good about himself,” Washington said, “and he should feel good about himself because he’s been doing some good things on the offensive side, starting to come around. And we need it.”
Ward blasted his ninth homer of the season.
In between the homers, the Angels broke the game open with a three-run fifth that included RBI hits from Willie Calhoun and Kyren Paris.
Calhoun had a career-high four hits, improving to .365 with a .959 OPS in 13 games with the Angels.
“He’s working every day,” Washington said of Calhoun. “He’s applying to things that he’s supposed to be doing in the box. And it’s just been awesome to watch him swinging that bat. He’s finally swinging the bat with consistency. He keeps the hitting going. And that’s what we have to do. We’ve just got to keep innings going.”
The offensive outburst allowed Anderson to cruise through the Texas lineup without much trouble.
Anderson has now improved his ERA to 2.72 through nine starts, a dramatic improvement from the 5.43 mark he posted in the first year of his three-year, $39 million deal with the Angels.
Anderson gave up a homer to Jonah Heim in the second. The Rangers had runners at second and third when he escaped that inning.
Starting with the final out of the second, Anderson retired 15 hitters in a row. He ended up allowing only two hits, both in the second inning.
“I didn’t feel great about my stuff in general, but just trying to compete and keep us in the game, give us a chance,” Anderson said. “Just tried to mix and move the ball around a little bit. Speed them up. Slow them down. After the second inning, I started throwing some better changeups. Started to get my fastball to some better spots. Just trying to attack and get in the zone as much as I could.”
