Zach Neto homered twice and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers 9-6 on Friday night in Anaheim, California.
Neto opened the game by jumping on the first pitch from Jacob deGrom — a 97-mph fastball — and sent it over the left-field wall for a leadoff homer, the 12th leadoff homer of his career.
The early blast set the tone for an Angels lineup that added a three-run homer from Wade Meckler to build a 4-0 lead and pushed the advantage to 6-0 by the third inning. Grayson Rodriguez started for the Angels and, despite allowing four runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings, struck out five and walked two and earned his first victory since July 31, 2024.
Texas chipped away. The Rangers cut the deficit to 6-3 in the fourth inning and pulled to within 6-4 in the sixth. Brandon Nimmo hit an RBI double in the seventh, trimming the margin to 6-5, but Oswald Peraza responded with a one-out homer in the seventh to restore a 7-5 Angels lead.
Neto supplied insurance in the eighth, drilling another leadoff homer to extend the lead — his second homer of the night and another run scored directly from the top of the order. Mike Trout doubled in the eighth, and Nolan Schanuel followed with an RBI single as the Angels stretched the advantage to 9-5 before Texas added a Danny Jansen solo homer in the ninth.
Jacob deGrom started for the Rangers and yielded Neto's first-pitch leadoff shot. After the game deGrom's record stood at 3-4. The Rangers' late rallies made the margin feel closer than the scoreboard at times, but the Angels' timely homers — from Neto, Meckler and Peraza — proved decisive in a game that swung back and forth.
The line from Rodriguez was enough to get the win: five strikeouts, two walks, and 5 2/3 innings with four runs and seven hits allowed. His first victory since July 31, 2024, came in a game where the Angels combined power from the top and middle of the order to withstand multiple Ranger comebacks.
Context: the game was played in Anaheim, and Neto’s first-inning shot arrived on the very first pitch, a moment that immediately put the Angels ahead. The club had not had a player homer in his first at-bat with the team since Mike Napoli on May 4, 2006 — a note that underscores how rare an immediate, game-opening impact can be.
The tension in Friday’s game was plain: Rodriguez collected the decision after a workmanlike start but allowed enough offense that Texas never felt completely out of it. DeGrom surrendered a blistering, first-pitch leadoff homer and still made it through enough innings to leave with a chance; the Rangers’ repeated rallies through the fourth and sixth innings exposed gaps the Angels had to plug with late-game hitting.
For Neto, the night was confirmation of his role at the top of the lineup — two leadoff homers, including a 97-mph first-pitch shot and another leadoff homer in the eighth to salt the game away. The Angels will carry that momentum into Saturday’s matchup, when the Rangers plan to start Nathan Eovaldi against Walbert Ureña, but the picture from Anaheim is simple: Neto’s swings decided a game the Angels could not afford to let slip.
