Angels Still Feel Sense of Achievement After Season-Ending Loss

Well, I was saying so much the other day.

At LAT, "After season-ending loss, Angels still feel a sense of achievement":

The adrenaline rush from three weeks of playoff-intensity baseball and the euphoria of several heart-stopping victories gave way to the emptiness of a long, cold winter for the Angels on Sunday.

Postseason longshots after a 10-19 August, the Angels kept their playoff hopes alive right up to the final day of the season, going 20-10 in September and October, winning 12 of 13 one-run games since Sept. 9 and staging a remarkable comeback with a five-run ninth inning Saturday.

But those visions of a momentum-fueled run through October were dashed amid a flurry of walks, fielding miscues and hits during a 37-minute seventh inning in which the Texas Rangers scored six runs against five Angels relievers en route to a 9-2 victory in Globe Life Park.

Left-hander Cole Hamels, acquired from Philadelphia in a July 31 trade, gave up two runs, three hits and struck out eight batters in a complete-game effort to help the Rangers clinch their sixth American League West title and knock the Angels out of playoff contention.

Adding salt to the Angels' wounds: Houston lost to Arizona on Sunday. Had the Angels defeated Texas, they would have forced a one-game tiebreaker against the Astros on Monday to determine the second AL wild-card team. Instead, Houston will play the New York Yankees in Tuesday night's wild-card game...

More.

Plus, "Angels' rallying cry next year: Remember Game No. 161."