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Rangers' quest for AL West title and .500 record goes down to final day of regular season
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- Rangers' quest for AL West title and .500 record goes down to final day of regular season
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Texas Rangers ' quest for an AL West title — and a .500 record — will go down to the final day of the regular season.
Danny Jansen homered and drove in two runs, and Jake Burger also went deep in a 6-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.
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Texas is 80-81 heading into Sunday's regular-season finale at Minnesota. Houston is also 80-81 going into its final game at the Athletics and holds the tiebreaker over the Rangers because the Astros won their season series.
That means Texas needs a win and a Houston loss Sunday to make the playoffs.
"We're here, and it's a chance, and we're excited for it," Jansen said after his team's victory but before the Astros routed the A's 13-2. "I've never been a part of a game like this, but it's going to be a lot of fun to go out there and leave it all on the field and control what we can."
Left-hander MacKenzie Gore (8-11, 4.59) ERA starts for the Rangers on Sunday and right-hander Dean Kremer (4-5, 4.97) for the Twins. The AL West winner will have the lowest winning percentage for a postseason team in a non-shortened season, below the .506 (82-80) for the 2005 San Diego Padres .
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"I always say, you worry about tomorrow tomorrow. You have to win today," Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. "Tomorrow's pretty important, too."
Making his first start since Aug. 7, Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi went 4 1/3 innings and allowed a first-inning run. Left-hander Robert Garcia earned the win with 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.
Brandon Nimmo had an RBI double and made a diving, backhand catch for the final out of the third inning as he tumbled over in right field to deny Kody Clemens , saving two runs. Nimmo played despite cramping.
Nicky Lopez , who hit a two-out double in the second and scored the Rangers' first run, was removed in the middle of the fourth after injuring his left leg while stepping awkwardly on first base.
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The bottom three batters in Texas' starting lineup went 6 for 11 with four RBIs and four runs.
"Today was a big win. Tomorrow's an even bigger one," Lopez said. "We didn't want to think about tomorrow until we finished today. I think we did a good job."
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