Trout throws it back to 2018 with another big night for hot-hitting Halos

ANAHEIM -- After going 16 straight games of being held to four runs or fewer, the Angels finally broke out for five runs on Wednesday and carried that over into another strong showing against Rangers ace Jacob deGrom before he left due to injury on Thursday.

The Angels racked up 15 hits, their second-highest total of the season, with superstar Mike Trout recording three hits for a second straight game in a 7-0 win over Texas on Thursday night at Angel Stadium. It gave the Angels the series win after they reeled off three straight victories over Texas, and it also sealed an overall winning record against the Rangers, as the Angels are 7-3 in the season series with three more games next week in Texas.

“That felt good,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Obviously, deGrom on the mound, it's never an easy task. So a lot of credit to the guys, a lot of credit to the hitting coaches preparing them. And for them to carry out the plan at the plate, and really just having great at-bats from top to bottom.”

It marked the first time the Angels had scored at least five runs in consecutive games since July 8-9 against Texas, while Trout hadn’t registered consecutive three-hit games since doing it in three straight from May 4-6, 2018. They also moved past the Athletics for sole possession of fourth place in the AL West for the first time since April 29, and improved to 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA since dismissing coaches Mike Maddux, Darryl Scott and Dom Chiti on Tuesday. All nine batters had a hit on Thursday, so it was a full team effort.

“That's a good team over there, a team that's right in the hunt for the Wild Card, and we went out and took a four-game series from them,” said right fielder Josh Lowe. “So it kind of shows us that we can go toe-to-toe with anybody, especially when our offense gets going. It was a good night.”

Right-hander Walbert Ureña was the beneficiary of the offense, and he kept up his impressive rookie season with six scoreless innings to outduel deGrom. Ureña scattered just two hits and two walks with five strikeouts to improve to 8-8 with a 2.67 ERA in 22 appearances (20 starts) this year. Ureña became the first Angels rookie starter to win at least eight games in a season since Jaime Barria won 10 in 2018.

“It was great,” Ureña said. “I just stayed with my same routine. Just trying to go out and having fun and making pitches.”

He has struck out 102 and walked 57 in 107 2/3 innings this season, while his ERA ranks second among qualified rookies behind Cleveland lefty Parker Messick’s 2.59 ERA. Ureña’s ERA is also the fourth-best among AL pitchers with at least 100 innings.

“Wow,” Suzuki said. “He's getting better and better, right? I know the last start he had a little tough one. But for him to regroup, get his work in this week and be ready for tonight, and do what he did tonight, was pretty cool.”

The Angels have historically hit deGrom well, and kept that up, especially in a second inning that saw them record five hits and score two runs against the two-time Cy Young Award winner. It marked the first time deGrom had surrendered five hits in an inning since Sept. 5, 2017, and he exited after the frame with right triceps fatigue.

“Getting to deGrom early today was great,” Lowe said. “We didn't try to do too much. We just passed the baton to the next guy and got the job done.”

The Angels kept it rolling after deGrom exited, scoring four runs in the fifth off veteran lefty Jordan Montgomery. Rookie Denzer Guzman brought home the first run on an infield RBI single with the bases loaded, before Lowe followed with a two-run single and Jose Siri plated a run with an RBI groundout.

Siri added an RBI single in the seventh to give the Angels an insurance run. It helped make up for him dropping a routine fly ball with two outs in the first that cost Ureña an extra nine pitches.

Ureña, though, recovered after the error, and was excited to earn the win while squaring off against deGrom.

“He was one of my favorite pitchers when I was growing up,” the 22-year-old Dominican Republic native said. “So it was pretty good facing him, but we won.”