Los Angeles @ Tampa Bay preview
George M. Steinbrenner Field
Last Meeting ( Apr 9, 2025 ) LA Angels 4, Tampa Bay 5
Infielder Luis Rengifo and center fielder Jo Adell are expected back in the starting lineup Thursday afternoon for the Los Angeles Angels when they play the host Tampa Bay Rays in the finale of a three-game series.
Both did not start the Angels' 5-4 loss to the Rays on Wednesday, but not because of injury. They sat because Angels manager Ron Washington perceived a lack of hustle from both players on infield grounders a day earlier in Los Angeles' 4-3 win.
Rengifo hit a grounder to shortstop in the sixth inning but did not run hard to first base. Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda mishandled the throw from shortstop Taylor Walls, but because Rengifo was slow to get down the line, Aranda had time to pick up the ball and record the out.
Rengifo has been bothered by a sore hamstring since spring training but said it isn't an issue now.
"He felt like he was out," Washington said. "That's unacceptable. He was trying to conserve energy, and we don't want him conserving energy. We want him expressing all the energy he has every day between those lines. He just brain-farted."
Yoan Moncada started at third base for the Angels on Wednesday but had to leave the game after striking out in his lone at-bat, apparently aggravating his bruised right thumb. However, instead of putting Rengifo in the game, Washington put Nicky Lopez in at third. Rengifo entered the game in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter and grounded out.
In the fifth inning on Tuesday, Adell appeared not to run hard on a grounder, and he was out despite the ball being mishandled by second baseman Brandon Lowe.
"He's been running around in center field, someplace he hasn't been, and he's beginning to find out there's a fatigue factor going on out there," Washington said. "I just see his movement a little slow. So I just wanted to give him a day."
The Rays had their own discipline issue on Tuesday, as Christopher Morel was ejected for slamming his bat into the ground after a swinging strikeout in the eighth inning. Despite drawing the ire of Rays manager Kevin Cash, Morel was in the lineup on Wednesday and went 1-for-3 with a walk.
"It can't happen," Cash said of the ejection. "It can't happen."
Morel said through an interpreter: "After what happened, I thought about it. And I was like, 'Well, I shouldn't have done that.'"
Right-hander Jose Soriano (1-1, 3.65 ERA) will make his third start of the season for Los Angeles on Thursday. He is coming off a loss against the Cleveland Guardians on Friday, when he allowed five runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings while compiling a career-best nine strikeouts.
Soriano is 0-1 with a 3.75 ERA in five career games (two starts) against Tampa Bay.
Right-hander Zack Littell (0-2, 4.15 ERA) will make his third start for the Rays. Littell, who is 0-0 with a 3.27 ERA in three career games (two starts) against the Angels, went seven innings in his most recent start on Friday against the Texas Rangers, but he allowed five runs and six hits.
"We preach strike-throwing and attacking," Cash said. "He did that for the better part of the game (but) didn't get the results that you generally get when you pitch that way."
--Field Level Media