Wild night in Texas ends with familiar frustration

ARLINGTON -- Two nights at Rangers Ballpark, two blown saves by Ernesto Frieri and two crushing walk-off losses -- and now, five consecutive defeats.

"This is the most frustrating moment in my career," Frieri said after surrendering the game-tying hit and watching the Angels lose, 14-11, in 10 innings on Tuesday night. "I've never gone through this, I don't know what to do. I'm just going to keep fighting. I won't give up. I won't give up. I'm just going to keep fighting."

Tied at 10 in the bottom of the 11th, journeyman reliever Daniel Stange -- making his first appearance in the Majors since 2010 -- dished out back-to-back walks to Mitch Moreland and Geovany Soto to start the 10th inning. After David Murphy beat out a double-play ball, putting runners on the corners with one out, the left-handed-hitting Leonys Martin laced a tailing line drive that sailed just over the left-field wall to give the Rangers (58-49) their second consecutive walk-off homer, following in the footsteps of Soto.

"Last night I had a dream like that because of the game we had with Soto," Martin said. "I dreamed about it, and it came true."

The homer capped quite the eventful night. Mike Scioscia was ejected for arguing a close play at first base in the second inning, third baseman Alberto Callaspo was pulled from the game to start the bottom of the fifth -- eventually getting traded to the first-place A's for Minor League infielder Grant Green -- and the Angels blew a lead on four separate occasions.

They're now 48-57, having lost eight of 10 and 12 of their last 17.

"These are games that if you're going to reach your goal, you have to be able to win, and we weren't able to do that the last couple of nights," Scioscia said. "The guys who were out there on the field played a terrific game tonight. I don't think we could've pressured them anymore than we did. We had some clutch hitting."

C.J. Wilson gave up six runs in four innings, getting thrashed for 11 hits and three walks in a high-stress, 109-pitch outing. The Angels left-hander came in with a 1.25 ERA over his previous five outings -- all quality starts -- but he now has an 8.63 ERA in six career starts against the Rangers.

Josh Hamilton gave the Angels a 7-6 lead -- their third lead of the night -- on a two-out, three-run double off left-hander Robbie Ross in the top of the seventh. After the Rangers tied it off Kevin Jepsen in the bottom half, the Angels seemed to pull away with a four-run eighth, when Erick Aybar hit an RBI groundout, Howie Kendrick laced a two-run single -- his 1,000th career hit -- and Hamilton added another run-scoring hit.

But the Rangers came roaring back.

Soto hit a two-out, three-run homer off Dane De La Rosa in the eighth. And in the ninth, Frieri blew his fourth save of the season, serving up a two-out single to Adrian Beltre.

Frieri, his ERA now at 4.20, has retired only six of his last 20 batters, which spans his last three appearances. He gave up two ninth-inning solo homers on Monday night -- to A.J. Pierzynski and Soto -- then surrendered the tying run in Tuesday's ninth, walking Ian Kinsler with two outs, watching him steal second base and then surrendering a hard grounder to Beltre that went under the glove of Tommy Field, Callaspo's fill-in at third base.

After the game, Scioscia admitted Frieri's confidence "might be a little nicked right now" and that he'll try to match up a little bit more in the ninth inning.

"Whatever decision they make, I have to accept that," Frieri said. "We need to win. We can't be losing games late. Hopefully I get through this and they give me their confidence again."