ARLINGTON, Texas — The week for the Texas Rangers has been all about Josh Hamilton and for good reason.
Six games. Nine home runs. Eighteen RBI. A month for a player on a roll. A dream month if your name is Albert Pujols right now.
But in Sunday night's 13-6 drubbing of the Los Angeles Angels, the Rangers once again showed they are much more than a one-man team.
The Rangers collected 19 hits, chased Los Angeles ace Jered Weaver in the fourth inning and got another quality start from Neftali Feliz. While they only put one more game between them and the rival Angels in taking two of three in the first series between the two teams, the Rangers left little doubt that they are still the team to beat in the American League West.
"One thing about those guys is they never take one day into the next," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "They take each day for what it is. We just try to be the best team we can each day we go out there. Yesterday the Angels were the best (in a 4-2 win). Today we were the best."
The Rangers were the best by beating up the Angels' best starter in Weaver.
Weaver was staked to a 2-1 lead but that was gone after Nelson Cruz lined a grand slam over the wall in right in the third inning. Weaver didn't last much longer as he was history after Hamilton lined a two-run double to right-center in the fourth inning to put the Rangers up 8-2.
The eight earned runs allowed by Weaver (5-1) matched his career high and Sunday's outing was his shortest since 2009.
Just because Weaver exited didn't mean the Rangers quit hitting. By the time the game was over, both Elvis Andrus and Cruz had matched their career highs with four hits apiece and every starter but David Murphy had at least one hit.
Texas finished the series by outscoring the Angels 25-13.
"That's not a forgiving lineup," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "They let you know if you're missing your spots. We just couldn't finish a couple of innings."
As good as the Texas offense has been, getting Cruz going may make it even better. He finished the series 6 for 11 and Sunday night he used all fields while falling just a triple short of the cycle,
"It was a big game," Cruz said. "We tried to get on top of the series and take it against a really tough pitcher. Definitely everybody is doing their job, getting on base. Whatever it takes to get on base we've been doing it."
Hamilton's magical week ended with a 2 for 5 night. He struck out in his first two at-bats against Weaver but then had a double and an RBI single to cap one of the best weeks ever by a big-league hitter.
"I wish it could happen every week," Hamilton joked.
While Hamilton said he hoped to be able to repeat the performance he had this week, he was even happier to see the production the team got from everywhere in the order.
"It was awesome," said Hamilton, who is now hitting .402. "It's a fun lineup to be a part of. Every night somebody else steps up or all of us. The top of the lineup. The bottom of the lineup. It flip flops and varies which is a good thing to be able to say as a team because not everybody is going to be able to do it every night."
On Sunday night everyone did. Ian Kinsler, Andrus, Hamilton, Adrian Beltre, Cruz, Mike Napoli and Mitch Moreland each had at least one RBI and six Rangers had multi-hit games.
That was more than enough support for Feliz, who had his fourth quality start of the season. Feliz allowed a two-run homer to Mark Trumbo in the second inning but those were the only runs he allowed as he pitched six innings, allowing four hits and striking out five while walking two.
Feliz was happy to have all the support but knew he still had a job to do.
"When you have that run support, my job is to first get ahead of the hitters," said Feliz, who improved to 3-1. "When I see that kind of support, that's what I have to do. I try to get contact and not strike out everybody. When I had that support, I wanted to maintain my fastball low. That's what I did and that's why I was successful."
