ANAHEIM, Calif. _ The Los Angeles Angels staged a wild six-run rally in the seventh inning Sunday, scoring the final two runs on wild pitches and surviving a turbulent ninth inning for a 7-6 come-from-behind win over the Texas Rangers before an announced crowd of 39,406 in Angel Stadium.
Texas starter Ariel Jurado limited the Angels to one run and five hits through six innings but was pulled in favor of left-hander Jeffrey Springs after allowing a one-out single to David Fletcher in the seventh. The Rangers led 5-1 at the time.
Two rookies recently promoted from triple-A ignited the rally. Jared Walsh doubled to center field, putting runners on second and third, and Luis Rengifo squibbed a grounder off the glove of diving first baseman Logan Forsythe for a two-run single that cut the deficit to 5-3.
Tommy La Stella singled to left-center. Mike Trout poked a run-scoring double to left to make it 5-4. Texas manager Chris Woodward replaced Springs with right-hander Kyle Dowdy. Shohei Ohtani's sacrifice fly tied the score 5-5, and Trout took third when center fielder Danny Santana's throw got by the cutoff man for an error. Kole Calhoun was intentionally walked, putting runners on first and third.
Trout scored on a wild pitch for a 6-5 lead, and Calhoun took third when Texas catcher Isiah Kiner-Falefa's throw to Dowdy covering the plate hit Trout and caromed to the backstop. Calhoun scored on another wild pitch, diving head-first into the plate for a 7-5 lead.
Angels right-hander Felix Pena, who was scheduled to either start or pitch the bulk of Monday's game at Oakland, struck out three batters with two on to end the eighth inning but was replaced by Justin Anderson to start the ninth.
Pinch-hitter Ronald Guzman struck out on a breaking pitch in the dirt that got away from catcher Jonathan Lucroy, who hesitated for a split-second before throwing to first. Guzman was safe.
Shin-Soo Choo doubled to right for a run that cut the lead to 7-6, and he took third on Elvis Andrus' fly ball to deep right. The Angels brought their infield in for Hunter Pence, who struck out swinging at a nasty sweeping slider.
Joey Gallo walked to put runners on first and third but Anderson got pinch-hitter Nomar Mazara to ground out to second to end the 3-hour, 27-minute game.
The game featured a promising 2019 debut by Angels left-hander Andrew Heaney, who missed the first two months of the season because of elbow inflammation. Heaney allowed two runs and two hits in five innings, striking out eight and walking one.
Heaney was dominant through three innings, mixing a sinking fastball that averaged 92.3 mph and touched 95.1 mph with his curve and changeup to retire the first nine batters, six by strikeout. Trout staked the Angels to a 1-0 lead with a towering homer to center field, his 12th of the season, in the first.
But Heaney left a 92-mph sinking fastball middle-in to Choo, who lined the 2-and-1 pitch over the right-field wall for his ninth homer to lead off the fourth inning.
Two batters later, Pence got a green light on a 3-and-0 pitch and drove a 92-mph fastball on the outside corner for an opposite-field homer to right, his 11th of the season, to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.
Angels manager Brad Ausmus hoped to keep Heaney in the 90-pitch range. Heaney threw 85 pitches in five innings and was pulled in favor of reliever Taylor Cole to start the sixth. Texas scored three runs off Cole, a rally that began with Rengifo, the Angels' shortstop, overthrowing first on Andrus' one-out grounder for a two-base error.
Cole shattered the bat of Pence, who got just enough of the pitch to flare a double to left to score Andrus for a 3-1 lead. Gallo was intentionally walked. Forsythe hit an RBI single to left-center for a 4-1 lead, and Rougned Odor's broken-bat RBI single to center made it 5-1.
