ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Only two players in major league history -- George Brett and Carl Yastrzemski -- have hit more doubles against the Los Angeles-California-Anaheim Angels than Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre.

So when Beltre ripped the ball toward left-center field with one out in the eighth inning Friday night, it was natural for him to assume he would end up on second base.

The ball, however, carried and cleared the wall, snapping a 1-1 tie and lifting the Rangers to a 2-1 victory.

It was Beltre's 27th homer of the year and 440th of his career. It was also his 38th career homer against the Angels, sixth most by an Angels opponent.

"After they scored one run to tie the ballgame, I was trying to get a good pitch to drive and hopefully hit a double," Beltre said. "But I was lucky enough to hit a home run and give our team a lead."

The win for the Rangers, coupled with Houston's loss, increased their American League West lead to 9 1/2 games and reduced their magic number to clinch the division to 12.

With just 20 games remaining on their regular-season schedule, Beltre admitted the finish line is within sight.

"Anything can happen in baseball so we're trying to create more separation between us and the teams that are behind us," Beltre said. "Hopefully we can win the series here and win the series in Houston and give us more breathing room so our manager can give a couple guys some rest."

Most of the game featured a pitchers' duel between Angels starter Tyler Skaggs and Rangers starter Yu Darvish.

Skaggs continued his progress since returning from Tommy John surgery, throwing six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and four walks while striking out eight in 95 pitches.

"As Tyler got into the game he brought his changeup in, pitched well with it, got his fastball by some guys, and his curveball improved as the game went on," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He had nice flow, and was putting pitches together. Unfortunately, our bullpen couldn't come in and do the job."

Mike Morin replaced Skaggs and surrendered a double on his first pitch of the seventh inning to Mitch Moreland. Moreland, who had three hits, went to third on a groundout and scored on a single by Elvis Andrus.

Andrus' liner just barely got over the glove of shortstop Andrelton Simmons, as the Angels played the infield in.

Darvish took the 1-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh, having allowed just two hits through six. But he hit C.J. Cron with a pitch with one out, helping the Angels get a rally started.

Jefry Marte forced Cron at second for the second out of the inning, then stole second base. Simmons quickly fell behind 0-2, but fouled off several two-strike pitches and worked the count to 2-2.

On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Simmons laced a triple into right-center field to score Marte and tie the game 1-1. It also knocked Darvish out of the game.

"He's really tough to strike out," Scioscia said of Simmons, who is hitting .283 with a .320 on-base percentage. "He puts the ball in play and right now his batting average is sitting as high as it's been in his career. He's making adjustments."

Matt Bush replaced Darvish and swiftly ended the inning by striking out Jett Bandy on three pitches. Darvish, who got a no-decision, gave up one run, three hits and one walk in 6 2/3 innings, striking out nine.

Darvish said after the game through an interpreter he made a "big adjustment" between starts. He lasted a season-low four innings in his previous start, a loss to Houston.

Darvish said the adjustment was a matter of dropping his arm slot during his delivery and the results were dramatic -- no Angels baserunner got as far as third base in the first six innings and only two got as far as second.

"His velocity was better than we saw before, that was probably the biggest thing," Scioscia said. "But he can do a lot of things with the baseball; cutter, slider, curveball, he has a lot of different pitches he can throw and command. He kept us off balance."

The game became a battle of bullpens, and the Rangers relievers were up to the task. Bush retired all four batters he faced before Sam Dyson pitched the ninth.

Dyson gave up a leadoff single to Mike Trout, then got Albert Pujols to hit a popup to shallow center. The shortstop Andrus camped under the ball, then let it drop, picked it up and got Trout on a force at second.

That left Pujols on first instead of Trout, but the Angels responded by putting in Rafael Ortega to pinch run.

Dyson struck out Cron for the second out, but Ortega stole second on the first pitch to pinch hitter Ji-Man Choi. Choi worked a walk but Dyson got Simmons on a comebacker to end it and earn his 33rd save.

The Angels used five relievers including J.C. Ramirez, who surrendered Beltre's homer.

NOTES: Texas 1B Mitch Moreland got his first start versus a left-handed pitcher, Angels LHP Tyler Skaggs, in nearly a month (Aug. 13). He entered the game hitting .256 (22 for 86) against lefties, higher than his average (.244) opposite righties. ... Angels rookie-league OF Cam Williams was hit with a 56-game suspension without pay after he tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, a metabolite of Nandrolone. ... Rangers OF/DH Carlos Beltran went 0-for-4 to snap an 11-game hitting streak in which he hit .444 with three homers, four doubles and 13 RBIs. ... Five former Rookie of the Year award winners have played for the Angels this season, tying the 2000 New York Yankees for the most used by one team in a season. The most recent was RHP Andrew Bailey, who made his Angels debut Sept. 2. The others are DH Albert Pujols, RHP Huston Street, C Geovany Soto and CF Mike Trout.