Rangers sweep Halos on 3rd straight walk-off

Arlington, TX – For the third straight night the Texas Rangers belted a walk-off home run against the rival Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

It was Adrian Beltre who played hero on Wednesday when he crushed a solo shot off Michael Kohn in the ninth inning to give the Rangers a dramatic 2-1 win.

The crowd-pleasing blast marked the first time in club history the Rangers homered in their final at-bat in three consecutive wins. It also completed a three-game sweep on the heels of a four-game slide and sent the Angels to a season-high sixth straight loss.

The temperature at the time of the opening pitch was 100-degrees Fahrenheit, and both starters worked quickly to escape the heat.

The Angels' Jerome Williams scattered eight hits and a pair of walk over 7 2/3 innings, his only mistake coming in the second inning when he hung a 2-2 breaking ball to Nelson Cruz, who promptly redirected the offering over the left-field wall for his 25th home run of the season.

Martin Perez was equally dazzling, allowing just four hits and two walks in 7 1/3 innings of work. Like Williams, he too was done in by a solo homer.

Perez was working with a 1-0 lead with one out in the eighth when Josh Hamilton sent his first pitch an estimated 422 feet to center field for his first home run against his former club.

Tanner Scheppers relieved Perez in the eighth and stranded a pair of runners, and Joe Nathan (3-1) worked around a one-out walk in the ninth to keep it a tie game.

Beltre led off the bottom half and got all of a Kohn (1-1) fastball for his 23rd home run of the season and an incredible third straight deciding homer for Texas.

"It was supposed to be down and away," Kohn said. "I left it middle in. Beltre is a great hitter and that's what he does with mistakes."

Geovany Soto hit the game-winning solo shot in the series opener and Leonys Martin had a three-run homer in the 10th inning of Tuesday's 14-11 victory.

"It's a big pickup," Soto said. "Hopefully we can build confidence and keep the ball rolling."

Game Notes

Angels outfielder Mike Trout flew out in his first at-bat, ending a string of 10 straight plate appearances having reached base ... Texas leads the season series, 7-2 ... The Rangers will play the Diamondbacks on Thursday as a makeup game from a postponement on May 29 ... Game time: 2:30.