Odor HR sends Rangers past Angels to cap soggy weekend

Texas Rangers' Rougned Odor is congratulated by third base coach Tony Beasley (27) after he hit a three-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 19, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Mike Stone)
Texas Rangers' Rougned Odor is congratulated by third base coach Tony Beasley (27) after he hit a three-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 19, 2018, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Mike Stone)

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Rougned Odor connected on a go-ahead, three-run homer with rain falling in the seventh inning, and the Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Angels 4-2 on Sunday to wrap up a soggy weekend.

Odor's 15th home run of the season came minutes before the second rain delay of a game that started 13 hours after the previous night's game ended. The Angels wrapped up that 11-7 win at 12:59 a.m. local time Sunday after a 2.5-hour delay at the start.

The rain had just started for the third time in Sunday's regularly scheduled game when Odor pulled a pitch from reliever Noe Ramirez (4-4) into the seats above the Texas bullpen in right-center field.

Odor, who had the most RBIs in the majors in August going into the game, added four to give him 23 for the month. His previous career high for a month was 18.

Shohei Ohtani doubled and scored the run that put the Angels up 2-1 in the fourth inning.

Three Texas relievers retired all nine hitters, starting with Matt Moore (3-6) in the seventh. The left-hander, who began the season in the Texas rotation before getting sent to the bullpen, won for the second time in the series.

Cory Gearrin pitched the eighth, and Jose Leclerc worked the ninth for his fifth save.

The delay after Odor's homer lasted 56 minutes following an 18-minute stoppage moments after he grounded out to end the fifth, making the game official with the Angels leading, 2-1.

The sun came out before the tarp was in place for the first delay, and it was removed in less than 10 minutes. The game didn't stop during a brief shower between the two delays.

Angels starter Jaime Barria didn't come out after the second delay, allowing seven hits and a run in five innings.

Yovani Gallardo came out for one more inning for Texas after the longer delay. The right-hander allowed six hits and two runs with six strikeouts in six innings.

Shin-Soo Choo had three hits and scored two runs, the first on Odor's RBI single in the first inning.

Ohtani connected on his second pinch-hit homer of the season in Saturday's win. He's the first Angels player with two pinch homers in a season since Russell Branyan in 2011. The two-way Japanese star has reached in eight of 17 pinch-hit appearances.

"Shohei is as prepared as any player I've seen, even more so," manager Mike Scioscia said. "But pinch-hitting is different than going up there and having four at-bats against a pitcher. There's less margin of error as far as when you miss a pitch that you should hit. He's been terrific."

Sports on 08/20/2018

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