Gallo's 36th HR isn't enough in finale vs. Angels

September 13th, 2018

ANAHEIM -- The Rangers' Southern California slumber continued Wednesday in an 8-1 defeat to the Angels that saw their scoreless streak reach 16 innings before a Joey Gallo home run in the seventh.
Collecting just two hits while being shut out on Tuesday, the Rangers followed that with eight hits on Wednesday, but scoring chances were at a minimum.
The Rangers lost for the 12th time in their last 16 games and their 62-84 record puts them a season-high 22 games under .500, their furthest below the break-even point since the end of the 2014 season.
"You need some big hits, and I feel like we had a lot of singles today," Gallo said. "With the player that I am, it's hard to win games when you're hitting singles. You have to get some guys on base and somebody has to hit one out of the ballpark. I thought we had good at-bats, we just didn't string enough [hits] together."
The game was rough all around for the Rangers. Gallo had the knob of his bat jam into his wrist during a swing on his final at-bat, but said he was fine. And second baseman left the game in the eighth inning with a pronounced limp.
Outside of Gallo's home run, the Rangers' best scoring chance came in the third inning, but Angels center fielder threw out at the plate on a two-on, two-out single from .

"If we're safe there, it's probably a different ballgame from that point on," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "We had some opportunities, we had some runners on early in innings, but we just couldn't do anything with it."
The Rangers clustered three hits that inning, but otherwise scattered the others about during the first six innings. Chirinos finished with three hits, but no other Rangers batter had more than one.
The Rangers had the leadoff man on base in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings but did not score. Only once did that leadoff baserunner advance to second base.

Rangers starter (8-5) was unable to help on his end, giving up six runs on six hits over three innings with a walk and four strikeouts. Gallardo was coming off a loss at Oakland on Friday in which he gave up five runs over 4 1/3 innings to start the three-city trip.
The Rangers' struggles actually extend all over California. They are now 1-5 against the A's and Angels. An off-day down the coast in San Diego will lead to three more California contests against the Padres before the final homestand starts Monday.
While one hard-throwing Angels reliever after another held the Rangers down on Tuesday -- when their first hit didn't come until the eighth inning -- Los Angeles starter (3-4) was a one-man wrecking ball on Wednesday.
Pena gave up six hits over his six scoreless innings with a walk and three strikeouts. Two batters after he left the game, Gallo homered to left field off reliever , his 36th, five behind the career high he set last season.

SOUND SMART
Chirinos' three hits came in his first three at-bats of the game, all singles. He needed 27 at-bats (33 plate appearances) and 10 games to record his previous three hits. Chirinos has just one extra-base hit (a home run on Sept. 2) in 47 at-bats since Aug. 14.
Gallo's no-doubt-about-it home run was his second of the road trip, after also collecting one in Oakland. He is 6-for-16 since the club arrived in California. With a walk on Tuesday night, Gallo became the third payer in Rangers history with multiple seasons of 35-plus home runs and 70-plus walks, joining Rafael Palmeiro and Alex Rodriguez.
HE SAID IT
"I trust Yo as much as I trust anybody, but it seemed like tonight he lost feel for the fastball and couldn't get it to where he wanted to. He had four consecutive hits [in the third inning] and six runs, so it felt like to me to get other guys in situations to keep us as close as we can." -- Banister, on removing Gallardo after three innings
UP NEXT
After an off-day on Thursday, left-hander will pitch in Friday's opener of a three-game series at San Diego, though he may not start as Banister is considering going with a reliever in an "opener" role before going to the rookie in the middle innings. Mendez is making the most of expanded September rosters, giving up just two runs over 10 innings of two starts since he was called up. He held a red-hot A's club to two runs over five innings Saturday at Oakland. The Padres are scheduled to send left-hander Robbie Erlin to the mound.