Going into the final day of the regular season, no team needed to win Game 162 more than the Los Angeles Angels. But they also needed a little bit of help from their closest rival in the AL wild card race to force a tiebreaker on Monday.
With a win and an Astros loss, the Angels would win the league’s second wild card spot. Beating the Rangers in the season finale could also have cost Texas the AL West title, if the Astros won.
But Cole Hamels pitched like the ace the Rangers hoped they were getting at the trade deadline (if not for this season than the next three years). The left-hander threw a complete game, allowing two runs and three hits with eight strikeouts, leading Texas to a 9-2 victory over the Angels and an AL West division title.
On the offensive side, Adrian Beltre came through big for the Rangers, batting 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI. His two-run homer off Garrett Richards in the fifth inning gave Texas a 3-2 lead, leaving the Angels behind for the remainder of the ballgame. Beltre broke the game open in the seventh inning, running out an infield single with the bases loaded that allowed two runs to score and put the game out of reach for the Halos.
Delino DeShields Jr. also notched two hits for Texas, while Prince Fielder and Elvis Andus each drove in two runs. Mitch Moreland and Josh Hamilton also got RBI in what turned into a decisive, division-clinching win in an improbable run to the postseason.
Richards allowed three runs over six innings for the Angels with six hits, two walks and six strikeouts. With his lineup only managing two runs against Hamels, taking an early 2-0 first-inning lead on a home run by Albert Pujols, Richards’ effort just wasn’t enough. But it became a moot point with a disastrous seventh inning by the Angels bullpen. Cam Bedrosian, Cesar Ramos and Mike Morin gave up a combined six runs, four hits and three walks, while only recording one out, ensuring the Angels wouldn’t play past Game 162.
The Angels led the AL West by two games on July 22, but a 10-19 August put them in a hole (7.5 games behind) too deep to climb out from. Even with an 18-9 September, the Rangers’ turnaround was too much to overcome. Combine that with the Astros also fighting for a postseason spot and the competition eventually overmatched this team.
The Rangers were six games out of first place in the AL West at the All-Star break. They eventually fell nine games behind on July 22. But from there, the team began to chip away as the Astros and Angels began to struggle in the second half of the season.
Texas went 46-28 after the All-Star break, including a 20-12 run in September and October to surge into first place and put themselves in position to salvage what once looked like a lost season. Meanwhile, the Astros went 37-34 with the Angels going 37-37 to open a lane for the Rangers to the playoffs and a division title under rookie manager Jeff Banister.
But with the Angels losing, Houston nabbed the AL’s second wild-card spot despite a 5-3 loss at Arizona. The Astros will face the Yankees in Tuesday’s AL Wild Card playoff at Yankee Stadium. The Rangers will play the Blue Jays in the ALDS, with Game 1 at Rogers Centre on Thursday.