By Austin McNabb
In the final series of the regular season with their last shot at the playoffs, the Texas Rangers will take on division rivals, the Los Angeles Angels, in a four-game series at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
Texas (87-71) is still in the playoff hunt after Baltimore, Kansas City, and the New York Yankees were eliminated from playoff contention in the American League this week.
The Angels (78-80) will be looking to end the regular season with a winning record and spoil their division foes’ playoff hopes in the process.
To kick off the series, Rangers starting pitcher Matt Garza (10-6, 3.90 ERA) will be looking to build from his previous outing from last weekend, in which he gave up one run in the bottom of the ninth, as Texas won 3-1. Prior to the game, Garza was 0-4 with a 5.83 ERA in his previous five starts.
Garza will face Angels starting pitcher Jerome Williams (9-10, 4.55 ERA), who has compiled a 3.75 ERA during a four-game winning streak. This is the longest winning streak for Williams since 2003 when he went on a five-game winning streak as a rookie.
While Rangers slugger Adrian Beltre is 10 for 24 with two homers against Williams, catcher A.J. Pierzynski is 1 for 15. First baseman Mitch Moreland and shortstop Elvis Andrus are a combined 8 for 43.
Despite being 8-15 in the month of September, the Rangers lead the season series 11-4, including a 9-1 at home against the Angels, who are 23-9 since August 23.
With the last round of regular season series in Major League Baseball, Tampa Bay is currently sitting in the top seed in the AL wild card race by one game, followed by the second wild-card seed, Cleveland. The Rangers are still one game outside of the wild card.
First pitch starts at 7:05 CDT Thursday at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
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