ARLINGTON, Texas — It has been a rough decade for the Angels.
The team, which last played in the postseason in 2014, clinched its ninth consecutive losing season with Thursday night’s 3-1 loss to the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field.
It’s the longest active streak of sub-.500 finishes in MLB and the longest in the franchise’s six-plus decades.
The Angels (58-82) last had a winning season in 2015, when they finished 85-77 and third in the American League West. Their last postseason appearance was the season before, when they won 98 games and were swept by the Kansas City Royals, 3-0, in an AL Division Series. It has been 16 seasons since they reached an ALCS and more than two decades since they last played in the World Series, when they won their only championship in 2002.
Their previous long streak of sub-.500 finishes was seven consecutive seasons from 1971 to 1977.
Angels right-hander Jack Kochanowicz settled down after a rough first inning, which included four hits, including Adolis García’s three-run homer. Kochanowicz’s 0-and-1 sinker hung up in the zone and García hit it out to right-center.
Kochanowicz escaped more damage in the first with an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. He held Texas scoreless on three hits, including two infield hits, and a walk and a hit batter, over the next five innings and left after six innings with the team trailing 3-1.
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Rangers left-hander Cody Bradford held the Angels to a run on two hits and two walks over six innings.
After Zach Neto’s RBI single scored Taylor Ward to pull the Angels within 3-1 in the third, Bradford retired the final 11 batters he faced. Neto had three of the Angels’ four hits, all singles.
The Angels turned to their bullpen in the seventh. Ryan Zeferjahn worked a perfect seventh and after a couple of two-out singles in the eighth, third baseman Charles Leblanc made an inning-ending, over-the-shoulder sliding catch down the left-field line in foul territory.
More to come on this story.