ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Texas Rangers were shut out 7-0 by the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday, giving them three losses in four games at Angel Stadium. Jacob deGrom was gone after two innings with right triceps fatigue.
Texas left Anaheim at 60-62. The Rangers are a half-game behind the Detroit Tigers for the final American League Wild Card spot and two games back of the Houston Astros in the AL West.
deGrom worked around a two-on, one-out jam in the first before Los Angeles got to him in the second. Five of the six hits he allowed came in that inning.
Denzer Guzmán led off with a single, and Josh Lowe doubled behind him. Adam Frazier brought Guzmán home with a one-out single.
Lowe tried to score from second on the same play, but Wyatt Langford threw him out at the plate from left field.
Wade Meckler reached on another single before Mike Trout drove in Frazier for a 2-0 Angels lead.
deGrom needed 32 pitches to get through the inning. He has thrown more in only one inning this season, when he needed 34 in the first on May 22 at Angel Stadium.
The five-hit inning was also his first since Sept. 5, 2017. Philadelphia had 6 hits against him in the fourth that night while deGrom was pitching for the New York Mets.
His stuff did not show an obvious drop. deGrom touched 99 mph and generated 10 whiffs. According to Statcast, all five of his pitches averaged more velocity Thursday than their season averages.
He finished with 53 pitches, 35 strikes, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. The loss dropped him to 8-8.
deGrom said the triceps tightened during the second inning. He believed he could have continued, but the Rangers decided not to send him back out.
“We needed to win,” deGrom said. “I take blame for tonight.”
He will undergo an MRI on Friday.
Walbert Ureña Holds Texas Rangers To Five Hits
Texas had an opening in the first when Jose Siri dropped a routine fly ball with two outs. The error forced Walbert Ureña to throw nine additional pitches.
The Rangers still did not score.
Ureña allowed only 2 hits over 6 innings, walked 2 and struck out 5. The 22-year-old improved to 8-8 and lowered his ERA to 2.67.
He became the first Angels rookie starter to win at least 8 games in a season since Jaime Barria won 10 in 2018.
Ureña has 102 strikeouts and 57 walks over 107 2/3 innings this season. His 2.67 ERA ranks fourth among American League pitchers with at least 100 innings and second among qualified rookies behind Cleveland left-hander Parker Messick, who owns a 2.59 ERA.
The longer stretch has been just as good. Ureña has a 2.43 ERA over 18 appearances since May 1 and has allowed no more than one run 13 times during that span.
José Fermin, Tayler Saucedo and Sammy Peralta each followed with a scoreless inning.
Texas finished with 5 hits, no extra-base hits and no hits with runners in scoring position. The Rangers drew 2 walks and struck out 8 times.
Over the three straight losses that closed the series, Texas went 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position. Los Angeles went 6-for-18 Thursday.
Joc Pederson did not have much to say about the performance.
“It wasn’t good,” Pederson said. “It was not good baseball at all on our part.”
Some of the lineup has been stuck for a while. Langford is 7-for-58 during his current skid. Jake Burger has struck out 26 times since the All-Star break, compared with 21 combined hits and walks.
There have been better stretches elsewhere. Corey Seager is batting .279/.354/.465 since his latest return from the injured list, and Brandon Nimmo has a .938 OPS over the last month.
None of it produced a run Thursday.
Los Angeles Angels Break Game Open Against Jordan Montgomery
The Rangers were still down only 2-0 when the Angels came up in the fifth.
Trout, Nolan Schanuel and Vaughn Grissom opened the inning with three straight singles against Jordan Montgomery.
Guzmán beat out an infield single to score Trout. Lowe followed with a single that brought home Schanuel and Grissom, and Siri’s groundout scored Guzmán for a 6-0 lead.
Siri added another RBI with a single in the seventh.
Montgomery was making his second appearance since coming off the 60-day injured list. Texas used five relievers after deGrom’s exit, with Los Angeles scoring 5 runs after the starter left.
Every Angels starter finished with at least one hit.
Trout had 3 singles and an RBI for his second consecutive three-hit game. He had not recorded three hits in back-to-back games since May 2018.
Guzmán also had 3 singles and an RBI. Lowe finished with 2 hits and 2 RBI, while Frazier had 2 hits and drove in a run. Lowe’s second-inning double was the Angels’ only extra-base hit.
Los Angeles still finished with 15 hits, its second-highest total of the season.
The offense had been quiet before this series turned. The Angels went 16 straight games without scoring more than 4 runs before putting up 5 on Wednesday and 7 Thursday.
It was their first time scoring at least 5 in consecutive games since July 8-9. Those games were also against Texas, including a 13-1 Angels win at Globe Life Field on July 8.
The Angels made a coaching change during the series as well.
Pitching coach Mike Maddux, assistant pitching coach Darryl Scott and bullpen coach Dom Chiti were dismissed Tuesday. Los Angeles has won all three games since the changes.
Maddux has a lengthy connection to Texas. He served as Rangers pitching coach from 2009 through 2015 and again from 2023 through 2025. He was on the staff for the 2023 World Series title, and Texas led the majors in ERA in 2025 before Maddux joined the Angels this season.
Tim Leveque is serving as interim pitching coach, with Michael Wuertz taking over as interim bullpen coach.
Texas Rangers Leave Anaheim Outside AL Wild Card Spot
Texas has now lost six of its seven games at Angel Stadium this season.
The Angels are 7-3 against the Rangers overall and have already clinched the season series. The teams have one series remaining, Aug. 21-23 at Globe Life Field.
Los Angeles entered Thursday at 47-74 but finished the series with three straight wins. The Angels also moved past the Athletics into fourth place in the AL West for the first time since April 29.
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker talked afterward about what has gone wrong away from home, especially in the division.
“We’ve got to figure it out,” Schumaker said. “It starts with me. I’ve got to start doing something different on the road. In-division especially, we have just not been good. We’ve got to switch it up somehow, and I’ve got to think of new ideas for that to happen. Because that series right there just can’t happen. Especially where we’re at in the season. We’ve got to fight back, and it starts tomorrow.”
Texas also heads into Friday without knowing when its top two starters will pitch again.
deGrom’s early exit came three days after Nathan Eovaldi went on the 15-day injured list with right posterior elbow inflammation.
“The starting pitching has taken a hit,” Schumaker explained. “That is reality with our two guys going down. We’ll see what it looks like, obviously. Jack Leiter threw today, so that’s good news. But it’s never easy when your No. 1 and No. 2 guys are down, but they’re here [with the team]. Evo’s here. And they can still be a voice and still lead in different ways.”
Jack Leiter made his first Triple-A rehab start Thursday. He has been out since late June following right ankle surgery and is eligible to come off the 60-day injured list Aug. 18.
Cody Bradford threw 7 innings Tuesday. Cal Quantrill took Eovaldi’s turn Wednesday.
The Rangers now head to West Sacramento for three games against the Athletics.
Kumar Rocker starts Friday at 4-9 with a 4.46 ERA. Left-hander Gage Jump is 5-7 with the same 4.46 ERA for the Athletics.
First pitch at Sutter Health Park is 8:40 p.m. CT on Rangers Sports Network.
