MLB: Angels beat Texas 7-0 for 100th victory of season

Published: Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008 4:41 p.m. MDT
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ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels posted their team-record 100th win, with Joe Saunders pitching six sharp innings and Mike Napoli homering Sunday in a 7-0 win over the Texas Rangers.

The Angels (100-62) take baseball's best record into the first round of the playoffs against the World Series champion Boston Red Sox beginning Wednesday in Anaheim.

The Angels became the first major league team since the 2005 St. Louis Cardinals to reach 100 wins, and the first AL team to do so since the 2004 New York Yankees.

Los Angeles won the AL West by 21 games over the Rangers, becoming the first team to win a division by at least 20 or more games since the 1999 Cleveland Indians, who finished 21 1/2 games ahead of Chicago that year.

Saunders (17-7) tuned up for the playoffs by allowing two hits, striking out a career-high nine and walking none. The All-Star lefty improved to 3-0 in his last four starts.

Napoli went 3-for-3 and drove in four runs. He gave the Angels a 2-0 lead with a two-out RBI double in the second and his 20th homer off Kevin Millwood (9-10) in the fifth.

The Angels added three runs with two outs in the sixth. Juan Rivera scored on an RBI single by Gary Matthews Jr., who advanced to second when catcher Gerald Laird dropped the throw from right field to the plate.

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Napoli, the Angels' top hitter this month, followed with a two-run RBI double, driving in four of their five runs in a game for the second time in September.

Millwood allowed nine hits and five runs in six innings, struck out six and walked one as Texas got shut out for the first time since a 7-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Aug. 15.

The Rangers won four of their last five games to end the season, having taken two of three from the Angels.

Notes: Texas CF Josh Hamilton won the AL RBI title with 130. ... The Angels notched their 50th home win of the season, joining those same Cardinals as the last teams to log 50 wins at home and on the road in the same season. ... The crowd of 43,761 was the Angels' 29th sellout and their regular-season attendance of 3,336,744 was fifth-best in club history.

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