Los Angeles @ Texas preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 2, 2010 ) LA Angels 2, Texas 6

The Texas Rangers can now feel good about Josh Hamilton’s status heading into the postseason.

The All-Star outfielder acted as if he was in midseason form in his second game back from an injury and will get another chance to get his timing down Sunday when the Rangers close the regular season against the visiting Los Angeles Angels.

Hamilton, a leading candidate for American League Most Valuable Player honors, went 2-for-4 with a homer and had three RBIs Saturday. He now has 32 homers and 100 RBIs while leading the majors with a .360 batting average.

Hamilton broke two ribs on Sept. 4 and missed nearly four weeks while recuperating. He returned to action on Friday and was hitless in three at-bats.

But all doubts about his health were put to rest in the fifth inning of Saturday’s game when Hamilton blasted an Ervin Santana pitch over the right-center field fence.

No matter how Hamilton fares today, he will set a Rangers’ record for batting average, surpassing Julio Franco’s .341 average in 1991. Hamilton will become the third Texas player to win a batting title, joining Franco and current third baseman Michael Young, who batted .332 in 2005.

Hamilton will get today’s at-bats against Dan Haren, one of the Angels’ top pitchers.

There had been discussion about holding Haren out of the season finale since he has pitched 229 innings between 21 starts with the Arizona Diamondbacks and 13 with the Angels. But Los Angeles decided to let Haren go against the Rangers.

Haren hasn’t lost since Aug. 20 and has allowed two runs or fewer in six of his last seven starts. He’s 3-0 in that span to raise his record with the Angels to 4-4 and lower his earned-run average to 2.86.

One of the starts was against Texas on Sept. 22 when Haren gave up one unearned run and three hits in seven innings while receiving a no-decision.

Haren was 7-8 with Arizona before being traded to Los Angeles.

Colby Lewis starts for Texas. The right-hander will be tuning up for his Game 3 start in the division round of the AL playoffs.

Lewis (12-13, 3.72 ERA) has won three of his last four starts, allowing two earned runs or less in each of them.

The defeat during that stretch was to the Angels, when he was on the losing end of a 2-0 score on Sept. 21. Lewis struck out 10 in seven innings and gave up two runs and four hits.

Texas won its 90th game Saturday night, reaching that total for the first time since 1999 when it last won the AL West crown.

The Angels (79-82) are wrapping up a disappointing campaign that represents their first losing season since 2003. Los Angeles is in third place in the division, one game behind Oakland.