ANAHEIM -- Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez’s long-awaited return from injury wasn’t a welcome one, but he took steps in the right direction in his second outing on Friday night.
Although Rodriguez’s four earned runs allowed in 5 2/3 innings isn’t the ideal statline, he showed flashes of the potential that made the Angels target him via trade over the offseason in an 9-6 win over the Rangers.
Outside of a three-run fourth inning, when he gave up a leadoff home run and a two-run triple, Rodriguez only allowed two runners to reach scoring position. One of them was a ground-rule double by first baseman Jake Burger, who scored on a single in the sixth inning.
Rodriguez heavily relied on his fastball to try to get ahead of counts and utilized his slider to get three whiffs on nine swings. By the end of his outing, Rodriguez had collected five strikeouts and walked two batters.
Offensively, the Angels jumped on right-hander Jacob deGrom early.
Shortstop Zach Neto launched the first pitch of the game into the Angels’ bullpen. Then, Orange County native and Esperanza High School graduate Wade Meckler clobbered a three-run home run to right field on the first pitch he saw as an Angel.
Meckler said before the game that he grew up as a huge Angels fan and that his favorite players were Chone Figgins, Torii Hunter, Erick Aybar and Mike Trout. He collected a pair of hits and a walk in a 2-for-3 effort in his Angels debut.