ARLINGTON, Texas -- Nomar Mazara may not be the best rookie in the American League this season, but he's been pretty special for the Texas Rangers.

Mazara added to what should be a solid Rookie-of-the-Year candidacy with his 20th home run to lead the Texas Rangers past the Los Angeles Angels 5-4 Tuesday night at Globe Life Park.

"I feel good that we got the 'W' today," an understated Mazara said.

The American League-leading Rangers (90-62) have taken the first two games of the series and tied their high-water mark of the season at 28 games above .500. Texas' magic number to clinch the AL West is down to two games pending the outcome of late games for Houston and Seattle.

Mazara leads all American League rookies in homers, RBIs, hits, runs and total bases. He's the fourth rookie in Texas franchise history to hit at least 20 home runs.

The Rangers came back to win for the MLB-leading 47th time by overcoming the shortest start of A.J. Griffin's career. The right-hander walked four, hit two Angels and gave up three hits in 1 2/3 innings.

Luckily, Texas was only down 3-1 when Griffin was yanked. Nick Martinez (2-3) came in and held Los Angeles scoreless for 3 1/3 innings to earn the win.

He also made a spectacular behind-the-back catch in the fifth on Andrelton Simmons' liner, which Martinez turned into a double play.

"It's just instinct and reaction," Martinez said. "I don't plan that or practice that. At best, you're trying to knock it down."

Simmons couldn't believe it.

"That's not fun," he said. "You try to hit the ball hard, and a guy makes a crazy play. That's baseball, I guess."

The Rangers' bullpen worked 7 1/3 innings and give up only one run. Sam Dyson, the last of six relievers, worked a scoreless ninth for his 35th save.

Mazara finished 2-for-3 and pushed his RBI total to 62. Carlos Gomez went 3-for-5 and scored twice for Texas.

The game turned chippy late as both benches were warned in the seventh inning after Rangers reliever Keone Kela sailed a pitch sailed over Simmons' head. In the next winning, Los Angeles reliever Brett Oberholtzer was ejected for hitting Elvis Andrus.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who was also tossed in the eighth, exchanged words with Texas third base coach Spike Owen in the seventh.

"I was upset," Scioscia said. "He was the closest guy in an opposing uniform."

The Angels (65-86) have lost 11 of their last 14 games. After winning the season series against Texas the last two years, Los Angeles dropped to 8-10 against the Rangers this season going into Wednesday's series finale.

Yunel Escobar went 3-for-5 for the Angels. Daniel Wright dropped to 0-4 on the season after giving up five runs.

Mazara smashed a two-run shot to straight-away center in the fourth off Angels starter Daniel Wright, putting the Rangers up 4-3. Johnathan Lucroy opened the inning with a double.

The Rangers padded the lead in the fifth after Wright hit two batters. Mitch Moreland made it 5-3 with two-out single off reliever Cody Ege to plate Lucroy.

Griffin found himself without any command early, and didn't make it out of the second inning. After dancing out of trouble in the first, Griffin melted down in the next frame.

Escobar's two-out double scored Cliff Pennington to tie the game 1-1. Griffin hit Mike Trout, and walked Albert Pujols and C.J. Cron to force in two runs, and was pulled in favor of Martinez.

The Rangers took a 1-0 lead in the first when back-to-back singles from Gomez and Ian Desmond put runners at the corners with no outs. Carlos Beltran grounded into a double play as Gomez scored.

NOTES: Texas has reached 90 victories for the season and 50 at home. The Rangers have won at least 90 only eight times in the first 56 years of the Washington/Texas franchise history. Five of the 90-win seasons have come since 2010, which leads baseball. St. Louis and Tampa Bay have four each. ... Texas is 18-3 (.857) in one-run games against division opponents. The only team in the divisional era (since 1969) to win at least 85 percent of one-run division games in a full season was the 1996 Cardinals (13-2, .867 vs. NL Central).