Postseason baseball is back in Arlington.
The Texas Rangers clinched their first playoff berth in three seasons with a 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday.
Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre drove in three with a double in the fifth inning and starter Derek Holland allowed three runs over 6 1/3 innings to pick up the win as Texas took the first of a crucial four-game set with their division rivals.
Riddled with injuries in each of the past three seasons, the resilient Rangers have gone 37-20 since the beginning of August and pushed their lead over the Houston Astros in the division to three games with the win.
"As a team, we've come a long way," Beltre told reporters. "This season has had its ups and downs … but overall it has been fun because it's been a grind the whole year. A lot of people didn't expect us to be here, and we found a way to get here. This is just accepting the fact that we're in the playoffs. But our eyes are still on the division."
The Rangers planned a toast to celebrate reaching the postseason, but are withholding any wild celebration until they possibly clinch the division.
"We had a toast, yes," manager Jeff Banister said. "We still have a mission to accomplish. And something that as a group of players we all talked about in spring training, when nobody else was talking about it but us."
(Videos courtesy: MLB.com)
After losing in back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011, the Rangers dropped the wild-card game at home to the Baltimore Orioles the following year and haven't returned to the playoffs since.
With Houston idle on Thursday, the Rangers lowered their magic number to clinch the division to one. Houston closes out the season with three games on the road with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Texas can clinch their first division title since 2011 with an Astros loss.
