Angels beat Rangers on Nolan Schanuel's walk-off walk

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Jul 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM — The Angels got the clutch hits they were missing all weekend, and a clutch walk to end it.

After a nightmare series of one-run losses and missed offensive opportunities, the Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 6-5, on Monday night, on Nolan Schanuel’s game-ending bases-loaded walk.

Luis Rengifo led off the bottom of the ninth with a double, his second hit of the game. An out later, Kevin Newman punched a single into left, sending Rengifo to third.

The Rangers intentionally walked Zach Neto to load the bases for Schanuel, who took a wide 3-and-2 pitch to end it.

The Angels also had a pair of two-out RBI hits to erase a one-run deficit in the sixth.

Travis d’Arnaud, who also put them ahead in the third inning with a two-run homer against Jacob deGrom, doubled to knock in the tying run.

LaMonte Wade Jr., who slumped in his first weeks with the Angels and now barely plays, then lined a single into center to knock in d’Arnaud with the go-ahead run.

The Angels needed another rally because they gave up that lead in the eighth.

Sam Bachman seemed to have the final out of the inning on a strikeout, but the ball got away from d’Arnaud far enough that he couldn’t throw out Jake Burger at first.

Bachman then gave up a game-tying double to Josh Smith.

The Angels were coming back from a three-game series in Toronto in which they went 4 for 30 with runners in scoring position on the way to losing three one-run games.

The answer to a frustrating offensive weekend wouldn’t seem to be a matchup against deGrom, a two-time Cy Young Award winner. The Angels were countering with Yusei Kikuchi, so it certainly seemed like this would be a pitchers’ duel with a couple of All-Stars sharing the mound.

Baseball often surprises you, though.

Neither pitcher was as sharp as he had been for most of the season.

Kikuchi gave up a two-run homer to Corey Seager in the first inning, and he needed 31 pitches to get the first three outs of the game.

In the third, Kikuchi gave up three hits and a walk, allowing another two runs. Third baseman Chad Stevens got a glove on two of the hits, with dives to each side, but he couldn’t make either play.

Kikuchi still managed to tack on two more scoreless innings after that, getting through five innings on 97 pitches.

The Angels got a run against deGrom in the first with some nice situational baseball. After Zach Neto led off the game with a double, he went to third on a ground ball and scored on a fly ball.

D’Arnaud, who was deGrom’s primary catcher when they were teammates with the New York Mets, hit a two-run homer against him in the second.

The Angels’ best chance to knock him out of the game was in the third, when Neto singled and Mike Trout and Jo Adell each worked a walk. They ultimately left the bases loaded when Jorge Soler was called out on a 3-and-2 pitch that was just barely off the outside corner. It was deGrom’s 35th pitch of the inning.

After that, the Angels managed just one hit over the next two innings, allowing deGrom to get through the fifth with a 4-3 lead.