Strickland

Travis d’Arnaud knows Jacob deGrom better than any other catcher in baseball. He caught the hard-throwing right-hander 60 times when they played together with the New York Mets, the most frequent backstop the former Cy Young Award winner has thrown to in his career.

That familiarity did d’Arnaud and the Angels well en route to their 6-5 victory over the Rangers (44-47) on Monday night, in which Nolan Schanuel walked off their American League West foes in the ninth inning by drawing a bases-loaded, RBI walk.

The veteran catcher ambushed deGrom in the second inning for a two-run home run, just hitting the ball hard enough — 97.4 mph — over the left-field wall.

D’Arnaud’s home run broke deGrom’s Rangers franchise-record streak of 14 consecutive starts with two or fewer runs given up — and provided the Angels (44-46) with an early 3-2 lead.

“Getting lucky to hit a homer against any Cy Young winner is really special,” said d’Arnaud, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI.

Later, with deGrom in line for the win, d’Arnaud tied the score during a two-out rally in the sixth against relief pitcher Shawn Armstrong, lining a double to deep left-center field to score Luis Rengifo, who reached base on a single.

The Angels’ Logan O’Hoppe douses Nolan Schanuel with a cooler of sports drink after he delivered a walk-off walk against the Texas Rangers Monday at Angel Stadium.

(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)

“We were in every game right till the end, in every single game in Toronto, and so it showed we were still going to fight to the last out,” d’Arnaud said, when asked about not being able to come through as a team with three, one-run losses against the Blue Jays, “and today we were able to prevail, which is a huge step for us.”

A batter later, pinch-hitter LaMonte Wade Jr. channeled the “Throwback Week” theme at Angel Stadium, reverting to the clutch hitting that earned him the nickname “Late Night LaMonte” in San Francisco. The 31-year-old, wearing the ‘70s-style Angels uniform, singled to center to give the Angels a 5-4 lead.

Interim manager Ray Montgomery, who was ejected in the seventh innings arguing balls and strikes after Mike Trout looked at an inning-ending strike three call, said Wade waited for his opportunity to make an impact — even with limited at-bats after Jorge Soler’s return from injury creating a log jam in the outfield.

“Anytime off the bench you can get some sort of feeling and get some reps, it’s good, and you hope it carries over,” said Montgomery, who watched the remainder of the game from the clubhouse. “Huge at-bat by him.”

DeGrom didn’t flex the ace-caliber stuff he often tests foes with. On Monday, he gave up three earned runs and five hits across five innings, striking out five and walking two.

Yusei Kikuchi, coming off Sunday’s announcement that he earned an All-Star berth (his second of his career), didn’t live up to the pitcher’s duel billing either. The Japanese southpaw labored through an almost-20 minute first inning — in which he gave up a two-run home run to Corey Seager — and never settled down during his five innings.

“I didn’t have my best stuff, but the team really picked me up today,” Kikuchi said in Japanese through an interpreter.

Before d’Arnaud’s tying double, Kikuchi was bound to be the losing pitcher, giving up four runs on six hits, struggling to accrue the same strikeout success he’d achieved as of late. He struck out just four, tied for the second-fewest he’d tallied in 2025 and the first time he’d done so since late May against the Yankees.

But none of that mattered when Schanuel came to the plate with the bases loaded, after Zach Neto was intentionally walked, washing away an 0-for-4 night with his walk-off walk.

“I didn’t need a hit,” Schanuel said. “I put my pride aside.”

Reliever R&R

The Angels placed veteran right-handed relief pitcher Hunter Strickland on the 15-day injured list with right-shoulder inflammation on Monday afternoon. Strickland, who had pitched 22 innings in 19 games to the tune of a 3.27 earned-run average for the Angels, said he felt his arm get stiff before pitching against the Blue Jays on Sunday.

During his outing, in which Strickland struck out one batter in a scoreless inning, the 36-year-old said the stiff sensation in his arm got worse, causing the IL stint. Cuban righty Víctor Mederos was called up from triple-A Salt Lake City in his place.

“We’re just hoping for the best and see what they say,” Strickland said, adding that he will get an MRI on Tuesday.

Robert Stephenson (stretched nerve in right bicep) said he began throwing again on Monday — soft toss — after soft-tissue recovery helped “fully heal” the nerve.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be a quick process, but at least I can start building up,” said Stephenson, who is in the second year of a three-year, $33 million contract with the Angels.

Stephenson has thrown just one inning as a member of the Angels, hurting himself in his second appearance back from Tommy John surgery on May 30.

It took Crystal Strickland years to qualify for Medicaid, which she needs for a heart condition.

Strickland, who’s unable to work due to her condition, chafed when she learned that the U.S. House has passed a bill that would impose a work requirement for many able-bodied people to get health insurance coverage through the low-cost, government-run plan for lower-income people.

“What sense does that make?” she asked. “What about the people who can’t work but can’t afford a doctor?”

The measure is part of the version of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful” bill that cleared the House last month and is now up for consideration in the Senate. Trump is seeking to have it passed by July 4.

The bill as it stands would cut taxes and government spending — and also upend portions of the nation’s social safety net.

For proponents, the ideas behind the work requirement are simple: Crack down on fraud and stand on the principle that taxpayer-provided health coverage isn’t for those who can work but aren’t. The measure includes exceptions for those who are under 19 or over 64, those with disabilities, pregnant women, main caregivers for young children, people recently released from prisons or jails — or during certain emergencies. It would apply only to adults who receive Medicaid through expansions that 40 states chose to undertake as part of the 2010 health insurance overhaul.

Many details of how the changes would work would be developed later, leaving several unknowns and causing anxiety among recipients who worry that their illnesses might not be enough to exempt them.

Advocates and sick and disabled enrollees worry — based largely on their past experience — that even those who might be exempted from work requirements under the law could still lose benefits because of increased or hard-to-meet paperwork mandates.

Benefits can be difficult to navigate even without a work requirement

Strickland, a 44-year-old former server, cook and construction worker who lives in Fairmont, North Carolina, said she could not afford to go to a doctor for years because she wasn’t able to work. She finally received a letter this month saying she would receive Medicaid coverage, she said.

“It’s already kind of tough to get on Medicaid,” said Strickland, who has lived in a tent and times and subsisted on nonperishable food thrown out by stores. “If they make it harder to get on, they’re not going to be helping.”

Steve Furman is concerned that his 43-year-old son, who has autism, could lose coverage.

The bill the House adopted would require Medicaid enrollees to show that they work, volunteer or go to school at least 80 hours a month to continue to qualify.

A disability exception would likely apply to Furman’s son, who previously worked in an eyeglasses plant in Illinois for 15 years despite behavioral issues that may have gotten him fired elsewhere.

Furman said government bureaucracies are already impossible for his son to navigate, even with help.

It took him a year to help get his son onto Arizona’s Medicaid system when they moved to Scottsdale in 2022, and it took time to set up food benefits. But he and his wife, who are retired, say they don’t have the means to support his son fully.

“Should I expect the government to take care of him?” he asked. “I don’t know, but I do expect them to have humanity.”

There’s broad reliance on Medicaid for health coverage

About 71 million adults are enrolled in Medicaid now. And most of them — around 92% — are working, caregiving, attending school or disabled. Earlier estimates of the budget bill from the Congressional Budget Office found that about 5 million people stand to lose coverage.

A KFF tracking poll conducted in May found that the enrollees come from across the political spectrum. About one-fourth are Republicans; roughly one-third are Democrats.

The poll found that about 7 in 10 adults are worried that federal spending reductions on Medicaid will lead to more uninsured people and would strain health care providers in their area. About half said they were worried reductions would hurt the ability of them or their family to get and pay for health care.

Amaya Diana, an analyst at KFF, points to work requirements launched in Arkansas and Georgia as keeping people off Medicaid without increasing employment.

Amber Bellazaire, a policy analyst at the Michigan League for Public Policy, said the process to verify that Medicaid enrollees meet the work requirements could be a key reason people would be denied or lose eligibility.

“Massive coverage losses just due to an administrative burden rather than ineligibility is a significant concern,” she said.

One KFF poll respondent, Virginia Bell, a retiree in Starkville, Mississippi, said she’s seen sick family members struggle to get onto Medicaid, including one who died recently without coverage.

She said she doesn’t mind a work requirement for those who are able — but worries about how that would be sorted out. “It’s kind of hard to determine who needs it and who doesn’t need it,” she said.

Some people don’t if they might lose coverage with a work requirement

Lexy Mealing, 54 of Westbury, New York, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and underwent a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgeries, said she fears she may lose the medical benefits she has come to rely on, though people with “serious or complex” medical conditions could be granted exceptions.

She now works about 15 hours a week in “gig” jobs but isn’t sure she can work more as she deals with the physical and mental toll of the cancer.

Mealing, who used to work as a medical receptionist in a pediatric neurosurgeon’s office before her diagnosis and now volunteers for the American Cancer Society, went on Medicaid after going on short-term disability.

“I can’t even imagine going through treatments right now and surgeries and the uncertainty of just not being able to work and not have health insurance,” she said.

Felix White, who has Type I diabetes, first qualified for Medicaid after losing his job as a computer programmer several years ago.

The Oreland, Pennsylvania, man has been looking for a job, but finds that at 61, it’s hard to land one.

Medicaid, meanwhile, pays for a continuous glucose monitor and insulin and funded foot surgeries last year, including one that kept him in the hospital for 12 days.

“There’s no way I could have afforded that,” he said. “I would have lost my foot and probably died.”

Mulvihill writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.