April 16, 2022 - Game 8
W - Noah Syndergaard (2-0)
L - Taylor Hearn (0-1)
S - None
HR: LAA: Ohtani (3), Ward (1)
Time of Game: 3:10
Game Recap
The night started quietly for both teams, yet the wind made its presence known throughout the night. After a scoreless game through two, the Angels struck for three runs in the third. However, it fluffed Taylor Hearn’s pitch count as Hearn threw a thirty-three pitch third inning. The Angels scored on an RBI Fielders’ choice by Shohei Ohtani, an Anthony Rendon sacrifice fly, and a Max Stassi single for their three runs. They answered with two in the bottom of the inning for the Rangers with a Marcus Semien RBI double and a Corey Seager groundout. Hearn’s night ended in the fourth inning allowing six hits, three runs, one walk and struck out four. While he reached the eighty-two pitch mark (around the target Chris Woodward mentioned before the game), Taylor couldn’t finish the fourth."Physically and pitch wise everything was feeling good," Taylor said after the game. "It was getting in leverage counts and I couldn't put them away, and then they were spoiling pitches. I've started to come to realize that with how teams approach me. They're not trying to take big hacks, they're just trying to put the ball in play."
The bullpen had to eat more innings on Saturday. Brett Martin finished the fourth inning while Garrett Richards pitched a scoreless fifth. Matt Moore, who the Rangers officially called up Saturday, pitched a scoreless sixth but yielded a run in the seventh on an RBI groundout by Max Stassi. The Angels added two more on a Shohei Ohtani home run (off of Greg Holland), his third homer of the series after not hitting one at Angel Stadium in the first six games. Then in the ninth, Taylor Ward hit a solo home run off of Joe Barlow, who allowed a run in two of his three outings and traffic in all three. So it wasn’t a good showing for the bullpen again on Saturday.
Meantime, the Rangers scored two in the third off Noah Syndergaard and couldn’t get anything else offensively. The Rangers got two hits off Syndergaard outside of their three-hit and two-run third. The one key is that Texas didn’t walk at all against the Angels’ starter. They struck out four times in Syndergaard’s six innings of work. "I didn't think we were good at all today," Chris Woodward said after the game. "We feel for every trap that I think we talked about before the game to avoid."
Postgame Notes
It was the second time since August 17th of last year (10 starts) that Taylor Hearn didn’t finish the fourth inning twice. Saturday’s and September 17th against the White Sox. Hearn allowed seven runs in the start against the White Sox, while Saturday, Hearn allowed three.
Taylor Hearn has allowed ten hits in 3.1 innings yet only allowed four runs on the season.
Three of the Angels’ seven runs scored on outs (fielders’ choice, sacrifice fly, and groundout).
Greg Holland made his team-leading fifth appearance on Saturday.
Saturday was the first game of 2022. The Rangers did not lead at any point. They have trailed at some point in every game of 2022.
Shohei Ohtani homered three times in ten at-bats going back to Friday’s game. Ohtani didn’t hit a home run in his first twenty-nine at-bats to start 2022.
Angels’ reliever Archie Bradley pitched his first multi-inning relief appearance in his last nineteen outings. His last two-inning outing came on August 12th, 2021, against the Dodgers. That was his only two-inning outing of 2021 (53 total appearances).
The Rangers fall to 2-6 for the first time since 2008. That team started 4-13 and finished 79-83.
During the homestand, Oppositions outscored the Rangers 15-1 in the seventh inning or later.
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