Texas' 'fearless' rookies enjoy night of firsts

Left-hander John King picked up his first Major League win, Eli White delivered his first hit and Leody Taveras pulled off his first steal of home.

All of these milestones took place for the Rangers in a 7-3 win over the Angels on Wednesday night at Globe Life Field. This is what can happen on any given night for a club that has used 15 rookies this season.

• Box score

“It is cool,” White said. “It’s exciting to play with these guys to see what things could look like and have some success on the same night.”

Texas had five rookies in its starting lineup, plus right-handed starter Kyle Cody on the mound in his fifth Major League game. The opposing lineup included Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon, Albert Pujols, Andrelton Simmons and Shohei Ohtani, with two-time All-Star Julio Teheran on the mound -- and the Rangers still won for the second straight night against the Angels.

“One thing we know about these kids is they are fearless,” manager Chris Woodward said. “They don’t care who is in the opposing batter’s box or who is pitching for the other team. That’s very easy to see, these kids have no fear. We have to corral them at times. They are a little aggressive and over-swinging at times, but keep them in the strike zone and they can do some damage.”

Cody allowed one run in 2 1/3 innings and he left trailing 1-0 after loading the bases with one out in the third on two walks and a hit batter. Jesse Chavez came in and snuffed out the rally, striking out Ohtani and getting Pujols on a flyout to right.

King then took over and pitched two innings, allowing an unearned run in the fourth. He also set down Trout, Rendon and Ohtani in order in the fifth.

“Growing up watching some of those guys, but my mindset was to not let that take hold of my mind,” King said. “It doesn’t matter who is in the box, my stuff has gotten me here, just trust it and throw it over the plate.”

The Rangers scored one in the fourth on a double by Isiah Kiner-Falefa and a single by Nick Solak against Teheran. They then added five more in the fifth.

White drove in the first run after Anderson Tejeda reached on a one-out double. White followed with a double into the left-field corner to end his 0-for-17 to start his career.

“There can be some frustration that creeps in,” White said. “But that's baseball. It's happened to me ever since I've been playing baseball. There have been some hard outs, and that's just part of it. You just keep having a good approach, and doing what you can do. You can't control if they catch it, but you can control if you swing at strikes and hit the ball hard. So that's all I was trying to do.”

Taveras’ steal came in the sixth after he doubled with one out and went to third on Kiner-Falefa’s infield single. With Solak at the plate, Kiner-Falefa broke for second on an 0-1 pitch. As catcher Anthony Bemboom threw down, Taveras broke for home and just barely beat second baseman Luis Rengifo’s return throw with a head-first dive.

“I was kind of surprised actually [that they] threw the ball to second base with Taveras at third base,” Woodward said. “He did a good job of waiting until that ball was in the air before he went home. Rengifo actually made a really good play to almost get him at home plate. Just good execution on both sides. Kiner got a good jump. Taveras waited until the ball was in the air before he took off. Just a well executed play.”

Kiner-Falefa had four hits, tying a career high, and extending his hitting streak to 12 games. He is 21-for-47 (.446) during the streak.