Walbert Ureña grinds through 5 scoreless innings as Angels blow out Astros

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Jun 10, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM — Walbert Ureña showed that he’s good enough to be good even when he’s not very good.

The Angels’ rookie right-hander walked five and hit a batter in five innings, but he still didn’t give up any runs in the Angels’ 10-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Tuesday night.

Ureña has been the brightest spot in an otherwise bleak season, dropping his ERA to 2.44 after his 10 starts. He has a 1.84 ERA over his last eight starts.

Ureña has been able to overcome his walks with strikeouts and by limiting hits, and there was no better example than Tuesday night.

Ureña struck out seven and gave up just three hits.

His next step will be getting quicker outs so he can get deeper in games. He hasn’t recorded an out in the seventh inning yet, and he barely made it through five with a season-high 107 pitches on Tuesday.

The walks kept him working around traffic all night.

Ureña whiffed José Altuve to strand two runners in the first. He struck out Joey Loperfido to leave the bases loaded in the third. In fifth, the bases were loaded again when he got Cam Smith on a pop-up.

Normally, it would be dicey for a starter to leave four innings for the Angels’ bullpen, but the hitters gave them a nice cushion by scoring seven runs in the first two innings.

In the first inning, the Angels scored two runs without a hit. Right-hander Kai-Wei Teng walked two and hit a batter, and Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña made an error on a routine ground ball.

In the second, the Angels put up five runs in a more traditional manner, spraying five hits around the field.

Mike Trout singled in the second, snapping his 0-for-22 slump.

Wade Meckler then punched a hit into left-center to drive in two. Jo Adell pulled a double down the left field line to knock in two more. An Oswald Peraza grounder pushed the lead to 7-0.

The Angels scored three more runs in the eighth, on RBIs from Trey Mancini, Peraza and Denzer Guzman. Nine of the 11 hitters who came to the plate for the Angels had a hit or an RBI.

It would have been a perfect night for the Angels if not for two players leaving the game with injuries.

Nolan Schanuel was hit in the left calf by a pitch in the first inning. He came out of the game a few innings later. Schanuel has been dealing with problems with his left ankle and calf for most of the season.

Sebastian Rivero had to leave the game in the middle of an at-bat in the fifth inning. He appeared to hurt his left wrist on a swing.

Before that, Rivero had collected two more hits, to go with the five he notched on Sunday. In two games, he raised his batting average from .133 to .250.

The streak ended in the fifth. Logan O’Hoppe took over Rivero’s at-bat on a 1-and-2 count, and he struck out. The strikeout was charged to Rivero.

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