'Stunned' Rangers looking ahead to Sunday
ARLINGTON -- Stunned?
"What do you think?" outfielder Josh Hamilton said after Saturday's 11-10 loss to the Angels.
"Tough loss, yes, a tough one," third baseman Adrian Beltre said.
"Yes, I am," closer Shawn Tolleson said. "Definitely stunned by it. It's not how you saw it going down."
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The Rangers thought they had a division title wrapped up in the ninth inning with a four-run lead and Tolleson on the mound, but the Angels rallied for five runs and held on for the victory. With the Astros' win over the D-backs on Saturday, Texas' magic number is still at one heading into Sunday's season finale.
"It's tough to swallow," Beltre said. "It's a situation we have been in before. We didn't get it done, hopefully we'll come back tomorrow and get the win."
The Rangers were in this situation before, on the verge of wrapping up a championship. That was in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, when the Cardinals rallied for a 12-11 victory after the Rangers were one strike away from winning it all in both the ninth and 10th innings.
The Rangers trailed this one, 5-1, going into the bottom of the fifth before rallying to take the lead. They seemed to have it wrapped up in the seventh, when Hamilton hit his second home run of the day and Rougned Odor also went deep to give the Rangers a four-run lead.
Video: LAA@TEX: Hamilton blasts two homers vs. the Angels
"It was a fun game to be a part of and a tough game to be on the losing end of," Hamilton said. "They did a good job of not giving up. You know the caliber of players they have. They fight to the end, just like we do. It was a tough one, but we've got an afternoon off [to] go home, not think about it too much and get after it again tomorrow."
Starter Colby Lewis began sharp, holding the Angels to one run through four innings. The score was tied in the fifth before the Angels knocked Lewis out of the game with four runs in the inning.
"I felt like I made some decent pitches," Lewis said. "I couldn't get through the fifth, and the situation like it is, we're not going to be able sit out there and throw a lot of pitches."
The Rangers struck back in the bottom of the fifth, taking advantage of two Angels errors to score four runs, with Beltre's two-run single tying the score.
Johnny Giavotella's double gave the Angels a one-run lead in the top of the sixth, but the Rangers came back in the bottom of the inning with three more. The big hits were a hit-and-run single by Robinson Chirinos, a two-run single by Shin-Soo Choo and another RBI single by Beltre.
The Rangers were ahead, 8-6, and the homers in the seventh inning seemed to be more than enough. They were not.
"It's not over," Lewis said. "We still have tomorrow and tonight, really. It's thoroughly disappointing what just transpired, but it is what it is. We've come this far. We're not going to let anything else get us down."