The Oakland Athletics capped a Cinderella season by completing a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers with a 12-5 home victory to claim Major League Baseball's American League West title.
The A's, who trailed two-time defending champion Texas by 13 games in June before battling back into the race, answered a five-run scoring burst by the Rangers in the third inning with six runs in the fourth and never relinquished the lead.
Texas pitcher Josh Hamilton dropped a fly ball in center field for a two-run error that put the A's ahead 7-5 in the fourth inning after run-scoring hits by Josh Reddick, Steve Smith and Coco Crisp.
