Texas Falls Short - 2-1

Angels take series thanks to a dominant start from Jared Weaver (above), who pitched seven innings of two-hit baseball. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

For the first time this season, the Texas Rangers (47-31) and the Los Angeles Angels (45-36) had a bona fide pitcher's duel. Unfortunately for the Rangers, a late-inning comeback against a shaky Angels' bullpen fell just short.

"It's a credit to us that we go out there and take down the hottest team in baseball," Angels center-fielder Torrie Hunter said.

Jared Weaver (W, 8-3) showed why he should be a candidate to start the All-Star Game at his home park, as he went seven strong innings, striking out six batters and giving up no runs on two hits.

"Weaver was sharp," Rangers' manager Ron Washington said. "He went to his off-speed stuff and he was putting it where he wanted to put it. He was making good pitches with his fastball in good spots when he had to and he didn't make very many mistakes."

After Weaver's exit Texas scored it's only run of the game on an Ian Kinsler bloop-single, and had a runner on second with only one out with Vladimir Guerrero and Josh Hamilton coming to the plate. Angels' reliever Fernando Rodney induced a fielders' choice from Guerrero and, after an intentional walk to Hamilton loaded the bases, Nelson Cruz popped out to end the threat. Micheal Young had a chance to score on a wild pitch with Cruz at the plate, but Young hesitated because of a crazy bounce off of the backstop.

"Because it was a fastball, I wasn't able to get that far off the bag in the first place," Young said. "From third base, you don't really have the luxury of seeing which direction it kicks — unless it kicks right back to you. And from my angle, I thought it kicked right back to Mathis. If I had an easy read, I would have been gone. But it was a tough read."

Angels' closer Brian Fuentes (S, 15) closed out the game, needing only seven pitches (six strikes) to finish-off the Rangers.

Rangers' starter C.J. Wilson (L, 6-4) pitched valiantly, although in a losing effort. Wilson pitched 5 2-3 innings (104 pitches) and gave up only two runs on five hits, but did have issues with control as he walked four batters.

Overall, the Rangers played a solid game. It just simply wasn't good enough to beat the reigning American League West champs.

"They've got a pretty good team and we've got a pretty good team. It's going to come down to pitching and defense all the time, and that's what it came down to tonight," Washington said.

Texas comes back home for a three-game set against the Chicago White Sox (40-37), starting Friday night. Chicago has lost three of it's last four after an 11-game winning streak in mid-June.

The scheduled start time is 7:05 p.m. with Colby Lewis (7-5, 3.28 ERA) starting for Texas and Freddy Garcia (8-3, 4.66) getting the start for Chicago. In his last start against the Rangers, Garcia gave up only two earned runs on seven hits and the White Sox won 4-3.

News and Notes:

• Josh Hamilton saw his hitting streak snapped after 22 games with an 0 for 3 night.
• Texas saw it's eight-series straight winning streak also snapped with the loss. It's the first series the Rangers have lost since May.
  

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)