ARLINGTON – Ryan Johnson limited the Rangers to one hit in seven scoreless innings in his Texas homecoming.
Johnson, a former Dallas Baptist University standout who was raised in the area, walked two and struck out three in earning his third win of the season in a 3-0 victory at Globe Life Field on Saturday.
Michael Fulmer pitched the eighth, and right-hander Ryan Watson worked a perfect ninth for his second save of the season.
Mike Trout, Moisés Ballesteros and Vaughn Grissom had run-scoring hits in the first, sixth and eighth innings for the Angels, respectively. Zach Neto went 3-for-5 with two doubles, a triple and two runs scored for Los Angeles (52-78).
Johnson (3-7) was in complete control while continuing to show marked improvement over his past four starts. During that stretch, Johnson has posted a 1.69 ERA, allowing four earned runs and 12 hits over 21 1/3 innings. He has walked 11 and struck out 13, producing a 1.08 WHIP.
He also lowered his season ERA to 5.75.
Moreover, the Angels as a rotation continued a good stretch. Since firing pitching coach Mike Maddux this month, Los Angeles’ starting pitchers have been elite. Over the five most recent starts, the rotation has allowed only three earned runs in 32 innings – a 0.84 ERA.
For Johnson, his best outing came Saturday.
Johnson breezed through the Rangers’ lineup the first time around, facing the minimum number of hitters. His only hiccup was hitting Jake Burger with the third pitch of the third inning, but he was erased when Danny Jansen grounded into a 5-4-3 double play. Johnson walked Joc Pederson to start the fourth, but retired the next three hitters, thanks partly to Christian Moore’s fantastic stab of Corey Seager’s hard ground ball.
After retiring the Rangers in order in the fifth on eight pitches, Johnson gave up his first hit of the game on Cody Freeman’s single to lead off Texas’ half of the sixth. It also began a timid Rangers threat. Johnson retired the next two hitters, but walked Seager to put runners on first and second with two outs and Wyatt Langford coming to the plate.
Johnson, though, induced a dribbler out of Langford, which the pitcher picked up on the first-base side and tossed to first to end the inning.
Neto led off the game with a double and scored on Trout’s bloop single. In the sixth, Trout led off with a double to left-center, advanced to third on a flyout and scored on Ballesteros’ double off the wall in right-center field.
Neto led off the eighth with a triple down the right-field line and scored on Grissom’s base hit.