ANAHEIM, Calif; — As Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said before Monday night’s game, sometimes when players struggle, they “Need a mental break.”
Having a mental break worked as Jack Kochanowicz was making his first start since being optioned to Triple-A earlier this month, had a very encouraging outing.
Kochanowicz (3-9, 5.75 ERA) went 4 2/3 innings with one hit, two runs, 0 unearned, 6 walks and three strikeouts in tonight’s 6-4 victory over Texas Rangers.
“I feel like last year I was really doing my best because I had all that confidence and I could trust that,” Kochanowicz said. “… More than anything. Mentally needed that reset and I’m back to good.” Kochanowicz said.
Like he did during his one start in the minors, Kochanowicz rarely used his slider tonight, throwing it just twice, and relied heavily on mixing up his sinker and fastball.
Of Jack Kochanowicz’s 58 pitches thrown tonight, 35 of them have been his sinker. His slider has been used only once.
— Thomas Murray (@Thomas_L_Murray) July 29, 2025
39 of his 75 pitches tonight came from his sinker, while 21 were from his fastball. The rest of his pitches were bounced around between his slider and changeup, mixing up his arsenal as needed.
While Kochanowicz used his sinker a lot tonight, he still believes it’s a “Work in progress.” to getting back to where it used to be.
“I never like the walks for sure,” Kochanowicz said. “But it’s definitely in a much better spot for sure.”
Nico Alba – The Sporting Tribune
Los Angeles Angels Pitcher Jack Kochanowicz (41) throws a pitch during the MLB game against the Texas Rangers, Monday July 28th, 2025 in Anaheim, California.
All three of his strikeouts tonight resulted in the batter swinging. His first strikeout was to Adolis García, getting him to chase at a 96 MPH sinker. The next was a changeup to Evan Carter in the fourth, then a fastball to Jonah Heim in the fifth.
“My sinker. My changeup have been feeling better. So I just wanted to go with that,” Kochanowicz said. “Try to get them on their front foot a little bit more but there’s not too much thought of it.”
The Angels (51-55) got Kochanowicz some run support in the third inning tonight when Kevin Newman hit his second home run of the season on a 2-run blast to center field off Jacob deGrom.
Nico Alba – The Sporting Tribune
Los Angeles Angels infielder Kevin Newman (10) celebrates his home run during the MLB game against the Texas Rangers, Monday July 28th, 2025 in Anaheim, California.
Two of his walks tonight were issued to Rangers (56-51) shortstop Corey Seager in the third and fifth innings when Texas had runners in scoring position. The intentional walk to Seager in the third happened after he tried pitching to him twice. After his second pitch, he nearly hit him with a pitch, so he opted to walk him instead, putting base runners on first and second.
After the intentional walk, catcher Logan O’Hoppe came out for a mound visit with Kochanowicz before Marcus Semien came up to bat.
The conversation worked exactly how the two had hoped.
Semien worked a 2-0 count against Kochanowicz. On the third pitch, he threw a 94 MPH sinker that resulted in a fly out.
Seager’s second intentional walk in the fifth came after Josh Smith hit a triple towards right field. Outfielder Gustavo Campero made a sliding attempt to catch the ball but just missed it, giving the Rangers’ leadoff man plenty of time to sprint across the basepaths and put himself in scoring position.
After Seager was intentionally walked, Semien then drew a walk himself to load the bases. García was up after Semien, and he hit what looked like a sure pop fly out to right.
Campero went to make the catch on the play, but after he was closing his glove and bringing it back to his chest, the ball slipped out, resulting in a drop and two unearned runs.
After the play, Kochanowicz’s night was over, and Connor Brogdon was in to replace him. Brogdon did what was needed by striking out Joc Pederson on a fastball in a 7-pitch at-bat.
In the bottom half of the inning, Campero helped get the Angels the lead after a leadoff single.
Zach Neto hit his 20th double of the season, 103 MPH, towards left field from a fastball by deGrom. Campero hustled across the diamond and slid into home plate to give the Angels a 3-2 lead.
Campero’s base-running efforts continued in the sixth when he stole two bases.
Nico Alba – The Sporting Tribune
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Gustavo Campero (51) gets a single during the MLB game against the Texas Rangers, Monday July 28th, 2025 in Anaheim, California.
“That’s really ahrd when your a young guy and you just get recalled and you’re trying to play a little bit and get your feet under you,” Montgomery said. “… But I do like the way he responded and it comes back. He was aggressive on the bases and we told him to make sure he stayed that way.”
The Rangers answered back in the sixth from a solo homer by Josh Jung. But the Angels would score three more runs in the bottom half of the inning.
First, Taylor Ward hit his 25th homer of the season on a solo shot to tie his career high for home runs in a season, set last year.
“Took some pitches earlier in the at bat to earn me a good pitch to hit.” Ward said.
Two at-bats later, Logan O’Hoppe hit a double off the right field wall to end deGrom’s night.
With Jacob Webb in to relieve deGrom, Luis Rengifo fired a blast to right field for a two-run homer, giving the Angels their biggest lead of the night at 6-3.
LAA – Luis Rengifo 2-run HR (5)
📏 Distance: 377 ft
💨 EV: 98.2 mph
📐 LA: 30°
⚾️ 85.2 mph changeup (TEX – RHP Jacob Webb)
🏟️ Would be out in 29/30 MLB parks
TEX (3) @ LAA (6)
🔻 6th#RepTheHalo pic.twitter.com/G976zK8P1y
— MLB Home Runs🚀 (@MLBHRs_) July 29, 2025
The Rangers added one more run in the eighth inning from a Jonah Heim RBI single to center field off Ryan Zeferjahn.
Zeferjahn was removed after the play, and Kenley Jansen was brought in for a four-out save opportunity.
Jansen needed only one pitch to get through the eighth inning by getting Josh Smith to fly out.
He continued to dominate in the ninth by retiring the side to pick up his 19th save of the season.
“We had to talked with him before about it. We had stretched (Ryan Zeferjahn) pretty good their going back out and he did a great job. Two jam shots,” Montgomery said. “Just didn’t want to let it get any further so that was a good time to do it.”