O'Hoppe homers twice, but Angels woes continue in loss to Rangers

ANAHEIM, Calif.— Logan O'Hoppe had one of the best games of his career at the plate, but the Angels fell to the Texas Rangers, 5-4, on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium.

The 24-year old catcher hit two home runs off Rangers starter Max Scherzer with both of them tying the game. It was the second career multi-homer game for O'Hoppe, who has a team-high 14 home runs this season with Taylor Ward and Jo Adell. 

O'Hoppe also tied Lance Parrish for the most home runs by an Angels catcher before the All-Star break. Parrish hit 14 first-half home runs in 1990. His second-inning homer tied the game at 1-1 and his home run in the fourth tied it at 4-4.

"I watched him growing up a ton and he's been so dominant his whole career, but it doesn't matter being on the losing end," O'Hoppe said. 

The game was tied in the eighth inning when Adolis Garcia hit a go-ahead solo home run for the Rangers off Luis Garcia.

The Angels had a chance to take the lead in the seventh inning when they had the bases loaded with two outs, but Nolan Schanuel grounded out to end the inning.

"They took advantage of the opportunity when it was presented to them and we didn't take advantage of the opportunity when it was presented to us," Angels manager Ron Washington said. "That's how you win and we're going to learn how to do that."

After Davis Daniel pitched 3 2/3 innings on Monday, the Angels were in need of a long start from Roansy Contreras. However, he was removed after allowing four runs in two innings of work.

Contreras retired the first two hitters of the game in just three pitches before allowing a solo home run to Josh Smith. 

He surrendered three runs with five consecutive baserunners in the third inning before Washington turned to reliever Hunter Strickland. Marcus Semien hit a RBI ground-rule double and Smith hit a run-scoring single to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead before the pitching change. 

"Two nights in a row our starters gave us (low) innings and we had to maybe use some guys longer than we had to,"  Washington said. "but that was the situation we were in."

Strickland allowed a sacrifice fly to Wyatt Langford before getting Nathaniel Lowe to ground into a double play to end the inning.

The Angels bullpen continued to hold down the opposition despite being forced into extra work. Strickland and Ben Joyce each threw two shutout innings. 

Joyce threw a pitch 103.5 mph, the second fastest pitch of his career. He has not allowed a run in his last nine outings.

"From the first time he got up here and took the mound and you watched his heart jump out of his shirt like that, now you watch his shirt, it's calm," Washington said of Joyce. "He's growing and he's got confidence now."

Scherzer allowed four runs, three earned in 6 2/3 innings with six strikeouts for the Rangers. It was the fourth start of the season for Scherzer, who missed time with a back injury.

He allowed a double from former Washington Nationals teammate Anthony Rendon in the third inning who was subsequently driven in on a double by Schanuel. Schanuel had two doubles against Scherzer with an RBI. 

Ward hit a single to right field which went under the glove of Rangers right fielder Derek Hill and rolled to the right field fence. Schanuel scored but Ward was thrown out at third base.

The Angels have lost eight of their last nine games and are 1-7 in July. They are 37-54 on the season and have a 16-42 record when their opponent scores first.

Right-hander Griffin Canning (3-9, 4.87 ERA) will start for the Angels on Wednesday in the series finale against the Rangers, who will start former Angels right-hander Michael Lorenzen (5-4, 3.21).