Rangers: From worst to best in AL West

ARLINGTON, Texas – First-year manager Jeff Banister stood in a corner of the Texas Rangers clubhouse watching players celebrate, with champagne spraying all over the place.

A year after their 95 losses were the most in the American League, two months after they were still eight games out of first place and three days after ensuring themselves a postseason spot, the Rangers clinched the AL West title with a 9-2 victory over the Angels on the last day of the regular season.

“Incredible moment, emotional, one I’ll never forget,” Banister said. “They never quit.”

Cole Hamels pitched a three-hitter, his first complete game since Texas acquired the ace left-hander from Philadelphia at the end of July, and team leader Adrian Beltre hit a go-ahead homer in the win Sunday, which eliminated Los Angeles from playoff contention.

Moments after the final out, an AL West championship banner was hanging beyond center field at the ballpark. A championship flag was hoisted on one of the six poles atop the massive video board in right field.

“This means a lot. I have never been on a team with as much heart,” said shortstop Elvis Andrus, the Rangers’ most-tenured position player and a member of their only World Series teams in 2010 and 2011. “This means a lot more than what we did a few years ago because of who these guys are. They have so much passion and energy. It has been a crazy year.”

Texas, which lost ace Yu Darvish to Tommy John surgery before the season even started, plays its first AL Division Series game since 2011 on Thursday at Toronto.

The Rangers clinched no worse than a wild card with their 5-3 win in the opener of the four-game series Thursday night before the Angels, the 2014 division champs, won the next two games with ninth-inning rallies.

Texas gave up five runs in the ninth Saturday to lose 11-10 to the Angels as second-place Houston won its third straight game. According to Elias, Texas was the first team in MLB history to lose a potential league- or division-clinching game in the last week of the season after having a lead of at least four runs in the ninth inning.

Texas left no doubt in its 162nd game with a six-run seventh inning that included an infield RBI single by Beltre, who has driven in 33 runs his last 23 games, and a two-run double from Andrus.

“This game has a cruel sense of humor,” Banister said. “From what happened yesterday, we got punched in the mouth. When that happens, you find out what you are made of, and you saw that in everything they did today.”

The Angels needed to win their finale and have Houston lose in Arizona to force a tiebreaker game for the AL’s second wild card. The Astros lost, but already had clinched the wild card after Los Angeles lost.

“It’s obviously disappointing,” star center fielder and MVP candidate Mike Trout said. “Can’t say I’m happy. I’m obviously not happy, but proud I am about this group. We fought. Obviously could have put our heads down easily in August.”

Texas has won its last 10 games started by Hamels, traded from the Phillies right after he pitched a no-hitter. The 2008 World Series MVP is 7-1 with Texas and 13-8 overall this season.

The Rangers were eight games out of first place after an 11-inning loss to San Francisco on Aug. 1, when Hamels left with a three-run lead in the eighth inning of his Rangers debut.