Los Angeles Angels vs Texas Rangers Box Score on Sep 02, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Sep 2, 2017

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Down to their last strike, the Los Angeles Angels forced extra innings and then beat the Texas Rangers 7-4 Saturday night.

The Angels were down 4-2 with two outs in the ninth before Luis Valbuena kept the game alive with a double. C.J. Cron followed with a two-run homer to left of Ricky Rodriguez to tie the game.

Los Angeles took advantage of the new life by getting a two-run single from Kole Calhoun off Austin Bibens-Dirkx to take its first lead of the game. Cron also added a sacrifice fly. Jose Leclerc (2-3) took the loss by walking all three batters he faced to start the 10th inning as all three of those runners scored.

Blake Parker notched his fifth save in support of Yusmeiro Petit (4-0), who pitched a perfect ninth.

The Angels are now 5-56 in games in which they trail after eight innings. Texas, which took a 1-0 lead in the first and led until the Cron homer, lost for the sixth time when leading after eight innings.

Elvis Andrus put the Rangers up 1-0 in the first with a fielder's choice grounder off Ricky Nolasco. The Rangers doubled the lead in the second when Carlos Gomez blasted a solo homer to left, his 17th of the season.

Texas right-hander A.J. Griffin retired the first 10 batters before Mike Trout doubled in the fourth. Trout came around to score on an RBI single from Albert Pujols to cut the lead to 2-1. The Rangers got that run back in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single from Joey Gallo.

The Angels ended the night for Griffin in the sixth inning, as the Trout-Pujols combo accounted for another Los Angeles run when Pujols singled home Trout again. Griffin allowed two runs on four hits in 5 2/3 innings. Nolasco lasted 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits while striking out six.

Texas pushed the lead to 4-2 in the seventh on a fielder's choice grounder from Nomar Mazara but had just one hit over the final six innings.

Pujols and Trout each had two hits for the Angels. Gomez had two of the six Texas hits.

NOTES: Former Rangers RHP Yu Darvish made a $100,000 donation through the Texas Ranger Foundation for the club's fundraising efforts for Hurricane Harvey relief. ... Los Angeles RHP Ricky Nolasco struck out six, which gives him 1,500 strikeouts for his career. Nolasco is one of 23 active pitchers with at least 1,500 strikeouts. ... Friday's 10-9 Texas win over Los Angeles was the third-longest nine-inning game in major-league history at 4 hours, 33 minutes. And it is the longest game in which the home team didn't bat in the bottom of the ninth inning.