They Rangers have a stacked lineup, one to nine.

The Angels have two players.

As last night showed, that’s all you need sometimes. Because their two players just happened to be the two best players in baseball.

The Rangers had so many chances last night to win, each time they stranded runners, and their chances, on base in frustrating fashion.

That gave the Angels two players the chance to come through when they needed to.

Texas scored three in the second on a three-run homer by Ezekiel Duran and it looked like the Rangers potent offense was rolling again after hitting the wall that is the Tampa Bay Rays.

But Shohei Ohtani coaxed a two-out walk in the top of the third with a runner at second to bring up Mike Trout, who singled home their first run.

Then the middle of the Rangers lineup produced two more runs to put the Rangers up 5-1.

Then the Rangers took the rest of the night off.

Ohtani hit a sac fly in the top of the fifth to make it 5-2. Trout walked and eventually scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-4.

Ohtani homered in the eighth to tie the game. The homered again in the twelfth inning to win the game.

Meanwhile, the Rangers stranded two in the seventh. Wasted a golden opportunity in the night with runners at second and third and one out. They wasted a two-on, one out chance in the tenth and eleventh. And even brought the tying run up in the twelfth.

They just couldn’t get the hit when they really needed it. The Angels, on the other hand, have Otahni and Trout.

Baseball is a game of math. And, in baseball math, two is greater than nine.

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