last-place angels

Tarik Skubal pitched seven dominant innings, Spencer Torkelson homered twice and drove in four runs, and the Detroit Tigers cruised to a 7-0 win over the Angels on Saturday night.

Skubal, winner of the past two AL Cy Young Awards, gave up five hits and struck out nine without issuing a walk. He induced 19 swinging strikes for the third straight start. Of his 87 pitches, 60 were strikes.

The Angels (38-61) advanced only one runner to second base against the left-hander when Logan O’Hoppe and Mike Trout singled with one out in the sixth, but Skubal (6-5) got Vaughn Grissom to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The Tigers (46-52) have won 11 of 14 games and are 24-14 since June 1 to move within 5½ games of the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central and 3½ games of Boston for the third AL wild card. Detroit was 22-38 and 11½ games back in the division on May 31.

It took only five batters for the Tigers to build a 4-0 lead. Kevin McGonigle opened the game with a double, Dillon Dingler was hit by a pitch, Colt Keith hit an RBI single and Torkelson crushed a three-run homer to left-center with one out.

Detroit tacked on two runs in the second after loading the bases with no outs on singles by James Outman and McGonigle and another Dingler hit by pitch, his third in two games. Keith and Riley Greene followed with sacrifice flies for a 6-0 lead.

Torkelson led the fifth with 18th homer, a 420-foot shot to center off left-hander Brent Suter for a 7-0 lead. That gave the Tigers first baseman his first multihomer game since Sept. 7, 2023, at Yankee Stadium.

Grayson Rodriguez (3-3) lasted only four innings, giving up six runs and seven hits in a shaky start that sent the last-place Angels to their fourth straight loss and 12th in 14 games.

Up next: Tigers RHP Casey Mize (4-6, 2.79 ERA) opposes RHP Ryan Johnson (1-4, 6.75) in Sunday’s series finale.

ARLINGTON, Tex. — Alejandro Osuna hit a three-run homer during a five-run eighth inning and the Texas Rangers pulled away for an 8-3 win over the Angels on Tuesday night.

Osuna’s first homer of the season followed RBI singles by Ezequiel Duran and Justin Foscue in the six-hit inning off Sam Bachman (1-2). Foscue also hit a pinch-hit home run in the seventh, tying the score 3-3.

Peyton Gray (4-0) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win for the Rangers, who pulled within one-half game of first-place Seattle in the AL West.

The last-place Angels have lost seven consecutive games, tying their longest losing streak of the season.

Rangers starter Jacob deGrom left after throwing 80 pitches in five innings because of an issue with his left hip and leg. DeGrom said he’s often felt tightness there between starts, but it usually goes away before he pitches again. This time it remained, preventing him from throwing changeups, and tightened in the fifth inning. He expects to make his next start.

DeGrom suffered first-inning struggles before settling in, his pattern this season. He gave up a pair of two-out runs in the first on Jorge Soler’s double that one-hopped the left-field wall and Josh Lowe’s single to shallow left after a wild pitch.

DeGrom didn’t give up another run, giving up five hits and two walks. In 18 starts this season, deGrom has a 9.50 ERA in the first inning and 2.29 afterward.

Texas tied the score 2-2 in the second on Nicky Lopez’s two-out, opposite-field single to left after two walks by José Soriano, who leads the AL with 51. Soriano didn’t walk another batter and gave up only two hits in six innings.

Rookie Wade Meckler’s RBI single off Chris Martin in the seventh gave the Angels a 3-2 lead before Foscue homered off Tayler Saucedo.

The Angels won the first three games against the Rangers this season.