ARLINGTON, Texas _ Trash, all kinds of it, scattered across Globe Life Park on a windy afternoon in North Texas. Hot dog wrappers, napkins and discarded chip bags were strewn across the infield for much of Sunday's series finale between the Angels and Texas Rangers.
At one point, Yunel Escobar even picked a few pieces up, bored during a mound visit. But the Angels played through the trash, like they have all the other obstacles that darted their way this month. And they came out of it looking OK. They pitched pretty well, produced a couple of big hits and topped Texas, 5-2, to conclude April above .500.
Angels starter JC Ramirez had averaged 97 mph with his fastball in his first three starts this season. His first four pitches Sunday were all low-grade fastballs off the plate, between 91 and 93 mph. He walked Delino DeShields and let him steal second. He struck out Nomar Mazara, but yielded a sharp single to Carlos Gomez, scoring DeShields. Gomez soon stole second, and broke for home on Rougned Odor's subsequent single to right field.
Kole Calhoun fielded it and rifled a perfect throw to the plate. Martin Maldonado applied the tag, and Ramirez had a second out. He got the third on a flyout to right, and his first of the second on a lineout to right that Calhoun caught on the run. Joey Gallo had earlier singled, and he stole second during Ryan Rua's at-bat. When Rua grounded out to third, Gallo took third, but remained there.
Ramirez's fastball velocity increased as the afternoon continued, in lock-step with his effectiveness. He retired nine Rangers in a row, a run broken by Shin-Soo Choo's fifth-inning solo shot, around which Ramirez struck out the side.
He struck out the first batter of the sixth, then exited after walking the second, Gomez. As Angels manager Mike Scioscia divvied up the remaining innings, left-hander Jose Alvarez replaced Ramirez and retired four consecutive men. Right-handers Blake Parker and Bud Norris split the rest of the game.
Calhoun homered to begin the third for the Angels' first run. Maldonado then led off the fifth with a single, and Yunel Escobar laced a double to center to put two men in scoring position. With Maldonado running on contact, Calhoun grounded to first base, where the Rangers defender picked the ball up and threw home. Though Maldonado could not score, he managed to evade being tagged until Calhoun could reach second.
Rangers manager Jeff Banister then ordered Mike Trout intentionally walked. Up next, Albert Pujols popped out to short right field, but Jefry Marte shot a single through to center field to score two runs.
The Angels again rallied with two outs in the sixth. Maldonado doubled, Escobar singled to score him, and Calhoun singled to force Perez's exit. Banister brought in right-hander Jeremy Jeffress to face Trout. Jeffress walked Trout but struck out Pujols, who had homered off of him two nights prior.
Marte added the game's last run on an eighth-inning solo shot, his second homer of 2017.
The Angels finished April with 14 wins in 27 tries. They have not had a better record at this stage in a season since 2011.
