Grand slammed: Texas Rangers surrender 8th grand slam, one shy of franchise record
The Los Angeles Angels scored seven runs in the fourth inning, including four on Jared Walsh’s grand slam, to beat the Texas Rangers 8-5 Monday at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
Rangers starting pitcher Kyle Gibson was chased after allowing eight runs (seven earned) on five hits, four walks and and a hit batter in four innings. He surrendered the grand slam, which is the eighth allowed by Rangers pitchers this season. That’s in 54 games of a pandemic-shortened season. They allowed a franchise record nine grand slams in 1988.
“I don’t think it is bad luck,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “When you put yourself in jams to where you have the bases loaded and then you can’t make a quality pitch, that’s what happens.”
Woodward said the only aspect he’d call bad luck is some of the hitters the club has faced with the bases loaded. That list includes Padres sluggers Fernando Tatis Jr., Wil Myers and Manny Machado.
“You look at the guys who hit the grand slams are obviously some really good players,” he said. “Maybe that’s a little bit unlucky, but we put ourselves in those situations a lot of times because we didn’t execute pitches.”
Gibson allowed a leadoff single and then walked the next two batters to start the fourth. The Angels had already taken a 4-3 lead on singles from Max Stassi and Andrelton Simmons before a force-out set up the bases loaded and one out for Walsh. Gibson fell behind 3-1 before Walsh homered on a sinker to center field.
“Then right there, we’re in a 3-1 count, we have nowhere to put him and we have [Mike] Trout on deck,” Woodward said. “You’re not going to pitch around him to get to Trout, obviously. He’s gonna do the same thing. You gotta get ahead. That’s one thing Gibby did really well his last start, but not this start.”
Texas has six games remaining, including two in Arizona before finishing with a four-game series against the Astros at Globe Life Field.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa homered in the first inning to give Texas a lead. It’s the third consecutive game the Rangers have homered in the first inning for the first time since 2004. Texas also added a run in the second on Anderson Tejeda’s double and Nick Solak’s single in the third to take a 3-1 lead before the Angels exploded in the fourth.
Derek Dietrich’s two-run homer in the sixth pulled Texas to within 8-6.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 6:11 PM.
