Rangers Clinch AL West for Second Consecutive Season
The Texas Rangers clinched the AL West with a 3-0 win over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night, marking their second straight division title, and sealing a playoff spot in the process.
Friday night, the Texas Rangers became the first American League team to clinch a playoff spot, when they defeated the Oakland A’s 3-0 at O.co Coliseum. The win, coupled by an Astros loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, gave the franchise its second straight division title, and its seventh overall in its history.
“It feels really good.” Elvis Andrus told the Associated Press. “Last year was a little hard the way everything ended up, especially for myself, but I tried to use it to motivate me, and that’s what I did all offseason. Really happy everything we did as a team, and we’ve got to keep going.”
Frontline ace Cole Hamels (15-5) took the mound for Texas, and finished with yet another all-star level performance, going seven full innings, and giving up just six hits and striking out seven batters with two walks. It was the 15th win in 31 outings for Hamels, matching the second-best win total of his career.
Sam Dyson got the save for Texas, marking his 36th of the year, giving him the third-most saves in the American League for the season.
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The Rangers got on the board early in the seventh, when Carlos Beltran knocked Carlos Gomez, but the hero of the night was all-star 3rd baseman Adrian Beltre, who smashed a two-run homer later in the inning, and gave the Rangers the 3-0 lead. Beltre finished the night 1-4 with one home run and two RBI, but that one hit was the one that counted in the end.
So what does this mean for the Rangers?
As the first AL team to clinch a playoff spot, the Rangers have the inside track on Boston and Cleveland for home field advantage throughout the postseason, with the AL winning the MLB All-Star Game this season, that would mean home field in the World Series as well.
Rangers fans have been singing for another crack at the World Series since Texas lost in back-to-back series to the Giants and Cardinals in 2010 and 2011, and this team has fans everywhere in the DFW thinking that this might just be the year that they finally get it done, and bring DFW it’s first ever World Series title.
“It’s a lot of fun to be part of, honestly,” Jeff Banister said to the AP. “Hard to describe unless you’re there every day, but everyone would rather go to work where you love the people that you’re working with, you enjoy the culture, the camaraderie, and we’re fortunate that what’s we got right now.”
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