4 moments that changed the 2015 baseball season

I’m pretty sure Jon Daniels thought so too, and ownership was anxious about Shin-Soo Choo, Prince Fielder, Jurickson Profar, Derek Holland, Matt Harrison, Elvis Andrus, Leonys Martin, Neftali Feliz, Martin Perez, catcher, left field, the bullpen and…what am I missing?

Texas Rangers Adrian Beltre, right, rounds the bases past Los…

Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Cam Bedrosian, right, is pulled… Two months later, Toronto also took two out of three, this time at Globe Life Park.

Cole Hamels pitched a three-hitter, Adrian Beltre hit a go-ahead homer, and Texas clinched the A.L. West title.

The Mariners (76-86) rallied from a 2-0 deficit, finally taking the lead when Oakland reliever Ryan tiresome (1-2) served up the Smith home run.

The top local stories this morning from the KERA Newsroom: The Texas Rangers are in the playoffs.

At that time, many viewed the acquisition of Hamels, who is signed through 2018 with a club option for 2019, as a move for future seasons.

With the Toronto Blue Jays loss in Tampa Bay on Sunday, the Royals clinched the number one seed for the postseason and will face the victor of the Houston-New York wild card game.

Los Angeles Angels shortstop Erick Aybar (2) can’t reach a hit…

Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt’s two-run homer broke a tie in the seventh inning, but the Astros were playoff bound an inning later after Texas beat the Los Angeles Angels to clinch the AL West.

After Albert Pujols hit his 40th homer in the first to give the Angels a 2-0 lead, following Mike Trout’s double, Hamels allowed only one more hit.

The Angels opened spring training amid controversy, Josh Hamilton suffering a substance-abuse relapse, getting banished from the team and traded to Texas in late April.

Erick Aybar and Kole Calhoun started the ninth with consecutive homers off Shawn Tolleson, the Rangers closer appearing in his fifth straight game.

“We’d love to do this in front of our fans”, said Rizzo. “It didn’t matter how many runs an opposing team was up”. For example, Keuchel started yesterday and is scheduled to start again Friday.

Left for dead by many during a miserable August, the Angels came back and turned their trajectory 180 degrees. “We’re just giving ourselves a chance to make the postseason. And that’s all we can ask for”. For the Angels, despite winning 12 of their last 16 games and having the best record in the American League in 2014, they’ll be watching from home in 2015. The Astros got it instead. The Angels jumped out to a 5-1 lead heading to the bottom of the 5th inning, proceeded to give up nine runs over the next four innings to fall behind 10-6 going to the 9th inning.

“Somebody asked me, ‘Oh my goodness, you must be so stressed trying to find rooms!’ But these are good problems to have”.

Regardless of what has been thrown at them this season, they’ve been resilient and have always bounced back. “It was fun to watch”.

With the their bullpen running on fumes and the Rangers needing a victory in Game 162 to win the division and avoid the wild-card round, their ace pitched a complete-game three-hitter against the Angels.

“Incredible moment, emotional, one I’ll never forget”, Banister said. But it was in the seventh that the Rangers really flexed their offensive muscle, plating six runs after sending 10 men to the plate to build a commanding 9-2 lead.