Adolis Garcia, Cole Ragans Power Rangers Past Angels

Adolis Garcia hit his first home run of the spring, while Cole Ragans threw three solid innings to earn his first victory.

The Texas Rangers defeated the Los Angeles Angels, 7-5, on Sunday in Surprise. Here’s a breakdown of the game:

Rangers 7, Angels 5

How the Rangers Won: The Rangers grew a 6-2 lead after four innings and hung on to win, thanks to an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Records: Los Angeles Angels, 4-4-1; Texas, 6-5.

Winning pitcher: Cole Ragans (TEX, 1-0).

Losing pitcher: José Suarez (LAA, 0-1).

Save: Lucas Jacobsen (TEX, 1).

Rangers at the plate: Adolis García hit his first home run of the spring, a solo shot in the third inning and part of a two-hit day for the right fielder. He was the only Rangers player with two hits. His solo shot gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead at the time.

Ezequiel Duran, Jonathan Ornelas and Eiler Hernandez each had a double. Ornelas drove in two runs, while Hernandez drove in one, as did Josh Smith and Nathaniel Lowe.

Smith’s RBI single in the fourth was the hit that gave the Rangers a 6-2 lead, and that shrunk to 6-5 going into the bottom of the eighth. Hernandez would double home Luisangel Acuña to give the Rangers a 7-5 lead and enough breathing room to allow Jacobsen to clinch the win in the ninth.

Rangers on the mound: Cole Ragans made his first start of the spring after two relief appearances and threw three innings. He gave up just two hits and a run while striking out four. He continued his strong start to this spring and earned his first win.

Jonathan Hernández started the fourth and gave up a hit and a run while striking out one. But the Angels got to John King in the fifth, as he gave up four hits and three runs (all earned) while striking out two. That made it a one-run game (6-5).

The rest of the bullpen held things together, as Dominic Leone, Brock Burke, Jake Latz and Lucas Jacobsen each worked a scoreless inning to preserve the win. Burke’s seventh inning was a bit of adventure, as he walked two and struck out two.

The Rangers gave up just seven hits to the Angels.

From the Park

Some tweets from Sunday’s game, including from our Alex Plinck, who is in Surprise:

It’s time for a Cole Ragans velocity check:

A year ago, Cole Ragans threw a grand total of 15 pitches at or above 94 mph, according to MLB's Statcast system. Today, alone: 18. Touched 96 on the scoreboard. His fastball, which averaged 92.1 mph last year, was 94-95 regularly today

— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) March 5, 2023

And an Adolis Garcia power check (video not included):

El Bombi just homered for the first time this Spring. pic.twitter.com/Gk3VKtDDFB

— Alex Plinck🏳️‍🌈 (@aplinckTX) March 5, 2023

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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