ANAHEIM -- The Rangers are no strangers to the Southern California area, and not just because they¡¯re AL West rivals with the Angels.

From Orange County to Los Angeles County, the Rangers have much of SoCal covered. Manager Chris Woodward hails from Covina, Calif., and spent Thursday¡¯s off-day hanging out with his family. Texas' starter on Saturday, Kolby Allard, was born in Anaheim and went to San Clemente High School.

Jason Martin, who grew up a Halos fan, went to Orange Lutheran High School in Orange, Calif., which is just a couple of miles from Angel Stadium.

Coming into the series against the Angels, Martin was riding a hot streak. Though he¡¯s hitting just .195 on the season, he¡¯s slashing .360/.360/.600 over his last seven games and .275/.269/.510 over his last 16. It was almost no surprise that Martin was responsible for the Rangers¡¯ only two runs in the series opening loss to the Angels on Friday, launching a game-tying, two-run homer in the second inning deep into the right-field bleachers.

¡°It was really exciting for my parents and my wife, sister, cousins, uncles, everybody,¡± Martin said. ¡°It was cool for the family to be able to see that. I also had some high school baseball coaches that coached me in the past that were there without me knowing -- it was cool to be able to see that.¡±

Martin said it felt a little cooler that his shot came off Shohei Ohtani. Even though he goes out trying to compete his best against every pitcher he faces, Ohtani having the year he¡¯s having for his hometown team made it a bit sweeter.

¡°It's definitely something that I'm going to remember for a long time,¡± Martin said.

Martin's outfield counterpart wasn¡¯t an Angels fan though.

DJ Peters, who was drafted by the Dodgers in the fourth round of the MLB Draft in 2016, is from Glendora, Calif. He noted that he and his family frequented games for both L.A. teams, but the Dodgers were his team.

Peters said he vividly remembers one Angels-Dodgers game that his dad took him to when he was in middle school, noting that it was ¡°hot as heck¡± and the Halos won 1-0. And though he grew up in Los Angeles County, Peters actually played for Angels ELITE baseball in high school and played home games at Angel Stadium. He calls the stadium a ¡°home away from home.¡±

Peters had more than 100 friends and family in the stadium for the series opener, and he could have even more throughout the weekend.

¡°It does [feel like a full circle moment],¡± Peters said. ¡°I got my first big league hit here, too. This always has been a special place in my heart. I grew up coming to games here and I get to play on the field. This is awesome. It's definitely cool when you get to come back to where it all started. I can remember myself playing on this field in high school and coming here as a kid sitting in the stands. Now that I get to play on the field, it¡¯s definitely surreal.¡±