Rangers LHP Cody Bradford takes on Angels in key AL West contest

The next step on Cody Bradford's journey back from elbow surgery will come Saturday evening as his Texas Rangers face the Los Angeles Angels in the second contest of a three-game series in Arlington, Texas.

Bradford (0-1, 2.93 ERA) will make his fourth start for the Rangers since being activated from the injured list on Aug. 5.

The 28-year-old left-hander is still re-discovering his rhythm after missing the entire 2025 season.

After getting through seven innings in 75 pitches when he faced the Angels on Aug. 11, he needed 81 to pitch four innings in his most recent start, against the Athletics on Sunday.

In that Angels game, Bradford took a 3-2 loss despite a quality start -- three runs allowed on five hits and a strikeout in seven innings. He took a no-decision in his team's 5-2 loss to the A's after giving up two runs on eight hits in four innings.

The struggles were easy for Bradford to diagnose after the game, as he blamed his inconsistent fastball.

"Not having great fastball command makes any game a grind," he said. "I made too many mistakes over the middle of the plate when I really needed to locate something on the outer half or the inner half, and I wasn't able to make that happen today."

In four career starts against the Angels, Bradford has a 1-2 record and a 4.64 ERA.

At 64-65, Texas is one game back of the American League West-leading Houston Astros, with both teams winning on Friday. The Rangers can't afford to give away more games against the Angels, who are fourth in the division and 27 games under .500, after dropping three of four games in a series in Anaheim, Calif., last week. Texas scored just four combined runs in the three losses.

It's been an up-and-down couple of days for the Angels' offense. After scoring 18 runs in a win over the Astros on Thursday, the Angels mustered only three hits in their series-opening 2-1, 10-inning loss to the Rangers on Friday night.

Los Angeles was unable to capitalize on another strong outing from starter Reid Detmers, who threw six scoreless innings and scattered six hits. In the nine starts Detmers has made in July and August, the Angels have just 16 total runs and are 1-8. Six of those runs came in a 7-6 loss to the Rangers on July 9.

"The timely hits kind of eluded us tonight," Angels manager Kurt Suzuki told The Orange County Register after Friday's defeat. "It's not going to be perfect every night. You've got to go out there and just have the best at-bats you can and see what we come up with."

The offense was hampered on Friday by the absence of a couple of regulars from the lineup, as first baseman Nolan Schanuel (side) and outfielder Wade Meckler (concussion) were out. Schanuel is considered day-to-day while Meckler will need to clear concussion protocol.

Right-hander Ryan Johnson (2-7, 6.41 ERA) will start for the Angels on Saturday.

After allowing a combined 13 runs in his final two starts of July, Johnson has given up two or less in each of his past three appearances. He took a 3-0 loss in his most recent outing Sunday against Kansas City despite putting up 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball.

Johnson is 0-0 with a 2.70 ERA in three appearances (one start) against Texas in his career. That start came Aug. 11, when he took a no-decision in the Angels' 3-2 win. He allowed one run on three hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings and struck out five.

--Field Level Media