Moments after the final out, in Texas an AL West championship banner was hanging beyond center field at the ballpark.
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The Astros led the AL wild-card race by a game heading into Sunday. Had the Angels defeated Texas, they would have forced a one-game tiebreaker against the Astros on Monday to determine the second AL wild-card team. The right fielder goes into the postseason with a season-high.
Houston clinched a playoff spot on season’s final day, their first postseason appearance since 2005. We could easily have been out of it today, before this game, because Houston won last night.
“Everybody was just doing whatever they could to win”, said Fielder, who had two RBIs, including one on a first-inning single that cut the Angels’ lead to 2-1.
“The best games usually are a little sloppy”.
The Padres announced after the game that interim manager Pat Murphy won’t lead the team next year. Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Kang Jung-ho has been ruled out for the season with a leg injury, but the Bucs have won one of the NL’s two wild cards. Chicago ended the regular season with a three-game sweep in Milwaukee.
The Rangers were nursing a 3-2 lead in the seventh with two on, and Choo drew a walk to load the bases. General Manager Jerry Dipoto resigned July 1 amid renewed friction with Scioscia. “You just have to like the situation, we all did, and you have to believe”.
“I felt comfortable and confident”, said Hamels, who struck out eight with two walks. He threw 108 pitches one day after the Rangers had to use eight relievers in their 11-10 loss. He had gone 6 2-3 innings Friday night en route to his 15th win.
The Rangers will head to Toronto to play the Blue Jays on Thursday.
Had the Angels been able to keep the game close, they certainly would have had a shot because the Texas bullpen had also been worked hard lately.
But despite losing all three games of this weekend series, the Yankees still backed into hosting the wild-card playoff game. The Yankees fell behind 7-1 in the fifth inning and stranded 11 runners.
J.A. Happ pitched six strong innings as the Pittsburgh Pirates assured themselves of home field for the wild-card game against the Chicago Cubs with a 4-0 win over Cincinnati. “I knew if I kept grinding it out, the team would score”. Chris Iannetta, Taylor Featherston, and Matt Joyce finished the year with more than 90 games played and an average under.200. With Wilson out with ankle surgery, this essentially left the Angels without two of their expected top starters this year.
The Rangers were usually 3 (three) outs from the such a thirdly AL West ownership during the past for 6 years.
Mets 1, Nationals 0 • Jacob deGrom looked sharp in his abbreviated playoff tuneup, and New York finally scored on Curtis Granderson’s eighth-inning homer to beat visiting Washington. Nevertheless, this will be the Astros tenth playoffs run in their franchise history.
Between Saturday and Sundays’ games, the Angels made a combined 13 pitching changes, nearly all of which came during the inning.
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The Phillies (63-99) erased an early 2-0 deficit and broke out for four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to not suffer what would have been their first 100-loss season since 1961, when they went 47-107.
