ANAHEIM, Calif. _ The Texas Rangers lost the finale to the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday afternoon, but that's almost beside the point.
Two pitchers, a starter and a reliever, offered encouraging signs for what is way more important to the Rangers than a getaway-day afternoon game: the postseason.
Colby Lewis returned to the rotation for the first time since June 21 and pitched well despite giving up three solo home runs and taking the loss 3-2.
Lewis allowed seven hits, including five for extra bases, and walked two over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out five, including Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and C.J. Cron in order after a lead-off homer and double to start the game.
"First start back, keeping our team in the game, giving them a chance to win, it's what I'm all about," said Lewis, who had been on the disabled list with a strained right lattissimus muscle since June 22. "I feel great. I feel like my stuff, for the most part, was really sharp today. Left some fastballs in the middle of the zone and I feel like that stuff will sharpen up a little bit more. Made some big outs when I needed to make some big outs."
Jered Weaver earned the win after allowing four hits, including two Adrian Beltre solo homers, over 6 2/3 innings. Carlos Gomez led off the eighth with a single and represented the tying run but was picked off first base and Ian Desmond and Rougned Odor struck out.
Yunel Escobar and Andrelton Simmons, who entered the game with a combined four homers, combined for three Sunday. Simmons homered in the second and sixth, to give him three in 388 at-bats. The big boys in the Angels' lineup _ Kole Calhoun, Trout, Pujols and Cron _ combined to go 2 for 10 with five strikeouts against Lewis. "Other than a couple of pitches, especially the last one I threw [to Simmons]. I gave up homers to guys that usually don't hit homers."
Dario Alvarez replaced Lewis after Simmons' homer with one out in the sixth and induced two groundouts to end the inning. After a lead-off single in the seventh, Rougned Odor and Jurickson Profar turned a 4-6-3 double play _ both spinning and throwing on the play _ behind Alvarez. He's thrown a combined four scoreless innings in his past two appearances.
That's an encouraging sign for the Rangers, too.
Even more encouraging? Tanner Scheppers retiring all seven batters he's faced since returning from February knee surgery. He pitched a perfect eighth on Sunday, the first time he's pitched in consecutive games (including the minors) since July 28-29, 2015. He struck out Trout looking at 96 mph fastball on the outside edge, forced Pujols to fly out to left and got Cron to tap back to the mound.
"I think there's always room for improvement through the process," said Scheppers, who earned the win with a two-pitch appearance Saturday night. "I'll take today and be happy with it. It's over, so now I got to focus on the next one."
"Other than the three pitches, we felt like he was in control of what he wanted to do," he said of Lewis. "It was nice to see because we're going to need him down the stretch."
Same goes for Scheppers.
"Electric, moving, sinking fastball," Banister said. "If Tanner can step up and be one of those right-handers late in the game it would be a huge plus for us."
Both Lewis and Scheppers, forced to watch their club succeed from the sidelines for a while, are just happy to be back contributing.
"These guys have done a great job putting us in a position to have a nice cushion for me to come back and give me the opportunity to run out there and be ready to go for the postseason," Lewis said.
