Looking to win their fifth game in a row, the Angels played against the Rangers on Tuesday night. Tim Lincecum pitched for the Angels in hopes of turning around his season. Making his second start of the season, Kyle Lohse, the 37-year-old right hander, took the mound for the Rangers.
In the top of the 1st inning, “The Freak” Lincecum loaded up the bases by giving up two singles and a walk. Thankfully for Angels fans, Lincecum struck out two batters in a row to get out of the bases-loaded jam.
The first run of the ballgame came in the 2nd inning. On a change-up by Lincecum, Robinson Chirinos hit a home run over the left center field wall to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Lincecum ran into trouble again in the 3rd inning, but Andrelton Simmons made a great catch to save a run and Lincecum struck out two batters again to end the inning.
Things got interesting in the 4th inning. Chirinos homered for the second time to make it 3-0, but Albert Pujols matched it with a three run bomb of his own, which tied the game up at 3-3. Later in the inning, Jett Bandy brought in Simmons on a sacrifice fly to give the Angels a 4-3 lead.
The Rangers retook the lead with a RBI single by Nomar Mazara and a RBI double by Elvis Andrus in the 5th inning. Pujols did not let the Rangers keep the lead for long, as he hit another three run bomb to make it 7-5 Angels.
Home Run Derby continued in the 6th inning. Ian Desmond crushed a home run off of Deolis Guerra to bring the Rangers within a run. In the bottom half of the inning, “The Bandyman” homered to left field for his third home run of the season, making it 8-6 Angels.
There was an injury scare in the bottom of the 7th inning. Pujols was hit in the head by a 92 MPH sinker and looked concussed, but made his way to first base and stayed in the game.
After Joe Smith and Cam Bedrosian shut it down in the prior innings, Huston Street came into the game for the save opportunity in the 9th inning. Rougned Odor hit a leadoff single to put pressure on, but Street got three straight outs to end the game and give the Angels another victory.
Lincecum got the win to make him (2-3) for the season. The losing pitcher for the Rangers was Lohse (0-2), and his ERA shot up to 12.54 on the season. The Angels (42-52) will look for the series sweep tomorrow at 7:05 P.M.