, his former teammate in Japan with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. The two-way rookie went the opposite way for his 22nd homer of the season, bouncing it off the top of the left-field wall.Taylor Ward also homered for the Angels (78-81), who need three more victories in their season-ending series with Oakland to avoid having three consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1992-94.Adrian Beltre and Jurickson Profar homered for the Rangers, who have lost four of five and eight of 10.Andrew Heaney struck out 10 and yielded two runs over seven innings in a strong finish to the Angels left-hander's first full season back from Tommy John surgery.After making just six starts in the previous two years, Heaney was the only consistently successful starter in Los Angeles' injury-wracked rotation this season. He became the first Angels left-hander to surpass 175 strikeouts since C. J. Wilson did it in 2013, and his 100 pitches against the Rangers were the most by any Angels pitcher since July 22.Jose Alvarez (6-4) pitched a perfect eighth inning in his 76th appearance of the season for the Angels, matching the second-most appearances in franchise history. Scot Shields holds the Angels record with 78 appearances in 2005.Jim Johnson pitched the ninth for his second save.Justin Upton doubled for the Angels' first hit in the fourth inning and promptly scored on a single by Ohtani, who has driven in runs in three consecutive games. Ohtani has 59 RBIs in his rookie season.Yohander Mendez yielded three hits and four walks while pitching into the fifth inning of his fifth big-league start for the Rangers.Beltre crushed his 15th homer of the season over the ficus trees in center field in the second inning, giving him eight homers in September during a fitting finish to what could be the final season of his remarkable career.The RBI was the 39-year-old Beltre's 1,704th, moving him even with Frank Thomas for 22nd in baseball history. He has 48 homers and 168 RBIs against the Angels, both tops for any opponent in his career.Beltre hasn't decided whether to play again next season, but he got a warm send-off from his Dallas-area fans last weekend just in case.Profar connected for his 20th homer in the fifth inning, but Ward answered in the bottom half with his third homer.TRAINER'S ROOMRangers: SS Elvis Andrus was shaken up in the fifth inning when he broke his bat and hit himself in the back of the head with the barrel on his follow-through. Andrus didn't really run to first while he was thrown out, and he walked gingerly back to the dugout, but stayed in the game.UP NEXTRangers: Ariel Jurado (4-5, 6.66 ERA) takes the mound Thursday when Texas opens a four-game series at Seattle to close the regular season.Angels: After a day off, the Angels will open their final series of the season at home against the Oakland Athletics on Friday. Neither team has announced a starting pitcher.---More MLB: www.apnews.com/tag/MLB and www.twitter.com/-Sports)
Rangers' Beltre aims to continue being Angels' nemesis 1h ago 2 min read Adrian Beltre has played some of the best baseball of his 21-year career against the Los Angeles Angels, and the Texas Rangers third baseman seems to enjoy hitting off left-hander Andrew Heaney just as much.The future Hall of Famer should get to experience both Wednesday night when the Rangers play the Angels in the final contest of their three-game series at Angel Stadium.Beltre has clubbed more home runs against the Angels than any other major league team, and 25 of those 47 long balls have gone over the wall at Angel Stadium.He's 7-for-14 in his career off Heaney with three home runs, including a two-run homer in a 4-2 victory in Texas on Sept. 4."Beltre's given me trouble for a long time," Heaney told MLB.com after that game. "Every time I face him, he knows what I like to do. I try mixing it up on him sometimes, and that time he got me, he ambushed the fastball in and he got every bit of it." Beltre is still looking for his first hit of the series.He sat out a 5-4 win by the Angels (77-81) in 11 innings on Monday and went 0-for-4 in a 4-1 loss on Tuesday.The Rangers (66-91) have lost seven of their past nine games.In his final start of the season, Heaney will be looking to secure a 10th win for the first time in his five-year career. He's had two chances since throwing seven shutout innings in a 1-0 win against the Chicago White Sox on Sept. 9.Heaney (9-10, 4.21) pitched well enough to win against the visiting Seattle Mariners on Sept. 15, departing with a 4-2 lead after five innings, but the bullpen crumbled in the 6-5 loss.Heaney then matched his shortest outing of the season on Friday, allowing six runs, five hits and three walks in three innings of an 11-3 loss at the Houston Astros.He has been much better at home this season, posting a 7-3 record and 3.28 ERA, compared to 2-7 and 5.06 on the road.Heaney has not only had trouble getting Beltre out, but several other Rangers as well. Elvis Andrus is 7-for-15 with two home runs, Rougned Odor is 5-for-15, Nomar Mazara is 4-for-11, Joey Gallo is 3-for-7, and Robinson Chirinos is 4-for-6 with two home runs.Heaney is 1-3 in six career starts against Texas with a 7.50 ERA, the highest of any team he has faced more than twice. He's 0-1 against the Rangers this season with a 7.94 mark.Heaney will be opposed by Texas left-hander Yohander Mendez (2-2, 6.04), who is scheduled to make his fifth career start and first against the Angels.His only appearances against Los Angeles came last September in two relief appearances two days apart in Anaheim.Mendez had a rough time in his last outing, allowing eight runs (seven earned) and nine hits in 3 2/3 innings of a 9-3 loss against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays last Wednesday.That was a major setback from his previous three appearances, when he combined to allow two runs and seven hits in 15 innings."Not as good of command with the breaking ball," former Rangers manager Jeff Banister told MLB.com after Mendez's last outing, which came two days before Banister was fired.
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