Wyatt Langford singled in Alejandro Osuna with one out in the bottom of the ninth as the Texas Rangers moved into first place in the American League West with a 7-6 walk-off victory over the Los Angeles Angels in the rubber match of their three-game series on Thursday night in Arlington, Tex.
Langford, activated off the injury list earlier in the day after missing time with a hamstring strain, lined a 1-1 fastball from Los Angeles reliever Kirby Yates (0-4) over the head of left fielder Jose Siri to drive in Osuna, who had opened the inning with a single and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt.
It was the fourth walk-off hit of Langford’s career.
Brandon Nimmo went 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored, Justin Foscue homered and doubled with two RBIs, and Ezequiel Duran also hit a two-run homer for Texas.
Cole Winn (4-2) picked up the win in relief after coming into a jam and recording the final out of the top of the ninth. Nathan Eovaldi struck out 10 over six-plus innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits and two walks.
Nolan Schanuel went 4-for-4 with two doubles, two RBIs and a run scored and Wade Meckler had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI for Los Angeles, which lost for the eighth time in the last nine games.
Texas smashed three straight two-out hits en route to a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Angels starter Reid Detmers.
Nimmo started the rally with his ninth home run, a 394-foot drive to left-center. Josh Jung followed a double to the gap in left-center and scored on a single by Jake Burger.
After Los Angeles cut the lead to 2-1 in the third on a Mike Trout RBI groundout, the Rangers answered with two runs in the bottom half. Nimmo singled, stole second and scored two outs later on Duran’s eighth homer, a 419-foot drive just over the glove of a leaping Trout in center.
Foscue extended the lead to 5-1 in the fourth with his seventh home run, and then added an RBI double in the sixth to make it 6-1.
Detmers was tagged for five runs on seven hits over four innings, striking out six and walking one.
The Angels rallied to tie it at 6 with five runs in the seventh, sending 10 men to the plate in the process. Jo Adell’s pinch-hit single tied the game after Schanuel drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single. Meckler and Jorge Soler also had RBI singles to highlight the comeback.
