Neto homers twice as Angels beat Rangers 9-6 in Anaheim

Zach Neto kept changing the conversation in Anaheim. His two home runs helped the Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers 9-6 on Friday night, and the box score carried a little of everything: a first career Angels homer for Wade Meckler, another blast from Oswald Peraza, and a lineup that produced 13 hits against one of the AL West’s better arms.

The Angels did not put Texas away immediately. The Rangers hung around into the middle innings, but Los Angeles broke the game open after trailing 6-4 in the seventh and kept adding pressure until the final margin no longer reflected how close it had been earlier. Neto’s first homer came as a leadoff shot to left field off Jacob deGrom, giving the Angels a 1-0 start and setting a tone that never really faded. His second homer completed the kind of night that can make a young hitter look less like a building block and more like a centerpiece.

That is the bigger question around this Angels offense: whether this was just a hot night or evidence that a repeatable core is finally taking shape. Neto now has nine home runs this season, and his power was matched by Meckler and Peraza, a reminder that Los Angeles is getting contributions from players who are still defining their roles. Meckler, an Anaheim native, delivered his first career Angels home run, while Peraza added another jolt to a lineup that forced Texas to keep pitching from behind.

Grayson Rodriguez also gave the Angels something they have not had often enough, a start they could survive and still win comfortably. He allowed 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. Rodriguez had not pitched in a big league game since that date before this start, after missing the entire 2025 season with an elbow injury and later undergoing surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow. Even with deGrom allowing six earned runs in three innings, the Angels were able to pair offense with enough length from Rodriguez to control the late innings.

For Los Angeles, now 18-34, the win offered more than a night of power. It hinted at what the club has been searching for all season: a younger group that can produce enough damage to make the lineup feel less random and more connected. Texas, which fell to 24-25, spent Friday trying to keep pace, but Neto’s swing, and the support around it, left the Rangers chasing a game that had already tilted toward a possible offensive identity in Anaheim.