Rangers miss first chance to clinch AL West championship

Mike Trout might not be the American League MVP this season, but he will retain his title as baseball’s best player and is probably in the discussion as the one player a team wants to see at the plate the least in a tight ballgame.

Especially a tight ballgame in which a division crown is on the line.

That’s where the Texas Rangers found themselves Friday night in a tied game in the ninth inning, with Trout first up against closer and bullpen savior Shawn Tolleson while needing a victory to clinch the American League West.

But Trout tripled and scored a batter later, and the Rangers’ title celebration was put on hold until Saturday at the earliest as the Los Angeles Angels left a sold-out Globe Life Park with a 2-1 victory.

The Rangers still had an outside shot at a clinch with a Houston loss, but the Astros won comfortably — 21-5 — at Arizona in a late game and the magic number was likely to hold at one.

Rangers players didn’t even stick around to see the final, but left confident that they will win the division.

“It’s nice the way it is,” third baseman Adrian Beltre said. “We knew that we’d get a crack at it today and if we couldn’t do it, we’d get two more chances. I like our chances.”

The Rangers wasted a nice outing by Martin Perez, who allowed only four hits in seven innings. Three of those were in the first inning, and two of those came with two outs to give the Angels a 1-0 lead.

Colby Lewis, a 17-game winner, will get the chance Saturday at noon to give the Rangers their first division title since 2012. The Angels, though, have had their way with Lewis, who is 6-11 with a 6.12 ERA against them in his career and 1-3 with a 8.31 ERA this season.

The two key pieces in the bullpen will also be working on fumes after Sam Dyson and Tolleson pitched for a fourth consecutive day. Manager Jeff Banister said that he had no regrets turning to Tolleson in a 1-1 tie and has little concern about the state of the bullpen.

“I don’t think you need to worry about our guys,” Banister said. “Our guys will respond. This time of year our guys are going to pitch. It will be a challenge, but they’ll respond.”

Tolleson (6-4) said that he told Banister and pitching coach Mike Maddux that he felt fine but took the loss. The offense was at a loss against the dizzying array of off-speed pitches from right-hander Jered Weaver.

His three best pitches were slow, slower and slowest, and he mixed them well enough to limit the Rangers to only one run on two hits in six innings.

Weaver had similar success earlier in the month in Anaheim, a game the Rangers won 2-1. The only one who seemed unfazed was Shin-Soo Choo, who homered to start the fourth and doubled to open the sixth.

But Choo got only to third base in the sixth as Johnny Giavotella turned a diving stop on a Mitch Moreland grounder that was headed toward right field into a forceout and Josh Hamilton was out on a deep fly ball to center field.

An inning earlier, Elvis Andrus and Rougned Odor had reached on consecutive errors by shortstop Erick Aybar and worked a double steal to reach second and third. Chris Gimenez, though, struck out, and Delino DeShields flied out.

“He was throwing pitches for strikes, but somehow we couldn’t hit him,” Beltre said. “I can’t explain it. It’s the same guy we’ve faced the whole year.”

Said Moreland of Weaver: “He’s a little bit different than what you see from most guys. He continues to mix it. It’s a little bit below hitting speed.”

Maybe the Rangers will catch up Saturday against Hector Santiago. If not, things could get awfully tense Sunday in the regular-season finale.

“We’re good,” Moreland said. “We’re right where we want to be.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 11:02 PM with the headline "Rangers miss first chance to clinch AL West championship."