ARLINGTON, TEXAS - On a gloriously historic night, the Angels moved a step closer to being mailed into history. Chone Figgins tripled in the ninth inning Saturday to become the fifth Angel and 20th switch-hitter in major-league history to complete the cycle.
Unfortunately, for Figgins' team, the accomplishment felt decidedly after-the-fact, coming at the end of an unsightly 12-6 loss to Texas, a pretty bow tied atop a pile of scrap.
"With the way things have been going, for this to come in a big loss for us is good in a way, but I feel bad," Figgins said. "It has meaning, especially with the way things have been going personally. But it's hard to enjoy."
With 13 games remaining, the Angels are six behind first-place Oakland, which won Saturday and reduced its magic number to nine. What all the numbers mean is the A's, at the earliest, could clinch the American League West title Friday against - that's correct - the visiting Angels.
The problems Saturday started almost immediately when the game did. The first four Rangers John Lackey faced scored. It wasn't until their No.7 hitter, Eric Young, batted that an out was recorded. And Young purposely made the out by sacrifice bunting.
Lackey responded by striking out the next two hitters to end the inning, but the damage had begun and only was going to get worse. In all, Lackey allowed six runs - all earned - on 10 hits in four innings.
Along with permitting the Rangers 18 hits total, the Angels also aided Texas' effort by making five errors.
After Lackey, Manager Mike Scioscia went to little-used reliever Greg Jones, who failed to hold the deficit at 6-3 when he allowed two runs in the fifth.
With the recent use of his bullpen, Scioscia's other option could have been Kevin Gregg. The right-hander, however, was unavailable because of arm stiffness, Scioscia said.
Given the Angels' recent empty offense, allowing a four-run first wasn't just a hole, it was a grave. Entering Saturday, the Angels had scored four runs in their previous 29 innings.
Their last serious moment came in the seventh, when, trailing 8-4, they put the tying run on deck. But Garret Anderson grounded out to strand two runners, the remaining threads of suspense gone when Texas piled on four more runs in the bottom of the inning.
The only remaining issue then was Figgins' pursuit. He singled in the second, homered in the fifth and doubled in the seventh. With no outs in the ninth, he ripped a ball deep to left-center and never considered stopping at second.
"If I had the opportunity to drive the ball and get it to the wall, I was going to go for third," he said. "When I hit it, I figured I might have a chance at it."
Figgins slid into third uncontested to make history. The Angels now have to prevent becoming history themselves.
