ANAHEIM, Calif. - After six months of steady play capped by a stellar September, the Los Angeles Angels earned the best record in baseball and their first playoff trip in five years.And then that trip lasted only four days.Once theyve recovered from an unceremonious AL Division Series sweep at the smoking-hot hands of the Kansas City Royals, the Angels must figure out what they can salvage from a 98-win regular season and a brutally swift post-season exit.Angels manager Mike Scioscia succinctly summed up his 15th season and the merciless nature of October: (The Angels) played hard all season, and we had a rough three games.And the Angels high-priced hitters had the worst games of all for a team that scored only six runs in 31 post-season innings.Mike Trout, the likely AL MVP, went 1 for 12 in his first post-season series. Albert Pujols, the $240 million slugger, was 2 for 12 with two RBIs.Josh Hamilton was booed repeatedly by Angels fans when he returned for the post-season after sitting out most of September with various upper-body injuries. The $125 million left fielder with three years left on his contract went a miserable 0 for 13 against the Royals.We won a lot of ballgames, but in the playoffs, the slate is wiped clean, Hamilton said. I dont think we played poorly.Until the last 10 days, the AL West champions were an uncommonly resilient ballclub. Even after losing starting pitchers Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs to season-ending injuries in August while playing in one of baseballs best divisions, the Angels hadnt lost more than four straight games all year a€” before they dropped the final three games of the regular season and their only three playoff games.You dont go in with any badge saying you won the most games, and youre certainly not going to get any points for that going into the playoffs, Scioscia said. We did a lot of things well during the series. We just didnt finish some games off. Those guys got some big hits, and they beat us. But you have to get your foot in the door. We know how tough it is to get your foot in the door.Whether the Angels can keep that foot in the door is the question of the off-season.With their first playoff berth since 2009, the Angels finally accomplished something worthy of the enormous expectations brought on by their hefty payroll. That wont be much comfort while owner Arte Moreno watches two teams with a fraction of that financial investment playing for a World Series berth this weekend.Morenos urgency has a price beyond those big checks. Los Angeles has signed Pujols, Hamilton and Trout to contracts worth more than a combined $500 million, but the Angels also parted ways with several top prospects and first-round draft picks in the past few years while trying to win now.So the Angels are likely to return next season with Trout and much the same core of well-compensated players mostly in their 30s, supplemented by whats considered one of the majors thinnest farm systems. It worked well this season, but its hardly the intuitive way to win.Yet the Angels also have plenty of promising pieces. Two of the best young starters in baseball emerged from their system this season in Richards and 16-game winner Matt Shoemaker, while the Angels bullpen became a force after a few canny in-season moves by general manager Jerry Dipoto.And though he wasnt impressive last week, Trout is still the best player in baseball at just 23 years old. The franchise will be built around Trout for the foreseeable future, a blueprint that pretty much any team would love to have.Pujols, who still has seven years left on his $240 million contract, spent the entire summer angrily dismissing suggestions that anything except the post-season held any importance to Los Angeles. When the Angels flopped in the playoffs, Pujols already was looking ahead to next October.Weve got too many veteran guys here, he said. I think we can bounce back. Its not going to be the last post-season were going to be together as a group. Thibaut Courtois Jersey . 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PITTSBURGH -- The San Diego Padres have gone 45 seasons without a no-hitter. Andrew Cashner nearly put a perfect end to their drought. The right-hander carried a perfect game into the seventh inning and faced the minimum 27 batters in a one-hitter that sent San Diego past the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 on Monday night. Cashner (10-8) retired his first 18 batters before Jose Tabata grounded a clean single into right field leading off the seventh. Tabata was erased when Andrew McCutchen grounded into an inning-ending double play, and Cashner cruised the rest of the way for his first complete game in 31 career starts. "Ive had some no-hitters broken up before and I think in previous times Ive learned to stay with my game plan and keep making pitches," Cashner said. "That was a big spot in the game with McCutchen up. I kept telling myself to keep throwing my sinker where I wanted to, even though I gave up the hit on it." The Padres, who began play in 1969, remain the only major league franchise without a no-hitter. Cashner, who has not allowed more than three earned runs in any of his last 11 starts, did not second-guess himself about throwing a sinker to Tabata. "I didnt want to get beat with my slider there," Cashner said. "I still think its a great pitch. I still think its the right pitch. Thats the way it goes." Cashner struck out seven, did not walk a batter and threw 97 pitches. He also scored from second on a single, sliding home with the second run of the game, moments before giving up Tabatas hit. Though Cashner said he had never scored from second base or slid into home plate as a professional, he did not blame that for losing the no-hitter. "Scoring that run helped keep me in the game," he said. The Pirates lost for the second time in eight games after entering the day tied for first place in the NL Central with the St. Louis Cardinals, who played later at Colorado. "Cashner was throwing three quality pitches for strikes and, most importantly, he was keeping them all down in the strike zone," Pittsburgh second baseman Neiil Walker said.dddddddddddd "Sometimes, you have games like this where the other guy just pitches a great game." Kyle Blanks, Ronny Cedeno and Rene Rivera each had two hits as the Padres won for the ninth time in 13 games. They are 17-3 in their last 20 at PNC Park. A.J. Burnett (8-11) took a shutout into the seventh but wound up with the loss. He allowed two runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings, with three walks and eight strikeouts. "A.J. pitched a heck of a ballgame himself," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. San Diego broke through for two runs against Burnett in the seventh. Cedeno and Rivera opened the inning with singles, and Cashner bunted into a fielders choice that left runners at the corners. Will Venable hit a sacrifice fly, and Cashner scored on Jedd Gyorkos single to left. The Padres left runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth -- but it didnt matter the way Cashner pitched. "Once you get into the fifth inning, I always think about the possibility of a no-hitter," Padres manager Bud Black said. "The way Cash was throwing, where his pitch count was, the look in his eye -- the whole everything was set up for a good game." NOTES: San Diego closer Huston Street missed the game to attend to a personal matter and is not expected to rejoin the team until Wednesday. ... Padres 1B Yonder Alonso could take batting practice with his teammates sometime during the four-game series that concludes Thursday. ... A sizeable contingent of fans made the 90-minute drive from Morgantown, W.Va., to cheer Gyorko, a native of the city and former star at West Virginia. ... The Pirates honoured RHP Tyler Glasnow and OF Andrew Lambo as their minor league player and pitcher of the year. Glasnow was 9-3 with a 2.18 ERA in 24 starts for Class-A West Virginia, and Lambo hit a combined .282 with 32 home runs and 99 RBIs in 120 games with Triple-A Indianapolis and Double-A Altoona. ... Pittsburgh LHP Jeff Locke (10-5, 3.14 ERA) starts Tuesday night against LHP Eric Stults (8-13, 4.03). ' ' '