Martin Perez dodged a couple early jams en route to seven strong innings, Drew Robinson and Mike Napoli homered and the surging Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-0 on Thursday night.
Texas has won eight of 11 games, pulling within a game of the final AL wild card despite trading away ace Yu Darvish to the Dodgers at the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline.
Perez (9-10) won his fourth consecutive start. He had two runners aboard in each of the second and third innings, but escaped both situations and cruised from there.