Angels will be scoreboard-watching while playing the Rangers today

Mike Scioscia has stressed all season that the focus of his players and coaches needs to be “in-house,” but he won’t fault anyone in the team’s Globe Life Park dugout of peeking at the out-of-town scoreboard in left field on Sunday.

The Angels enter the noon Pacific time regular-season finale against the Texas Rangers a game behind Houston for the second American League wild-card spot, and the Astros will start their game at Arizona at the same time.

The Angels need to beat Texas and need the Astros to lose to force a one-game tiebreaker in Houston to determine the final playoff entrant on Monday.

“During the season, you’re really oblivious to it, and you’re really just playing baseball,” Scioscia said of the scoreboard. “But everybody in this dugout, on this field, coaches included, are going to be human.

“We know the situation. I don’t believe it will be any distraction. We’re going to go out there and try to win this game, so it’s not going to affect any game management. And it’s not going to affect what these guys do.”

Garrett Richards will make his first career start on three days’ rest for the Angels on Sunday. The Rangers will counter with veteran left-hander Cole Hamels, who was acquired from Philadelphia on July 31 and is 6-0 with a 3.39 earned-run average in his last nine starts, with Texas winning all of those games.

Scioscia said he will have to be mindful of the workload of a bullpen that has thrown 27 1/3 innings in the last eight games, so relievers such as Trevor Gott, Fernando Salas and Jose Alvarez may be available to pitch to only one or two batters.

If the Angels force a Monday game, right-hander Nick Tropeano would likely start, and if they win that to advance to Tuesday night’s wild-card game against the New York Yankees, left-hander Andrew Heaney would start on regular rest.

The Angels are coming off Saturday’s dramatic 11-10 win over the Rangers, in which they rallied for five runs in the top of the ninth inning to overcome a 10-6 deficit.

After watching a replay of a controversial play from that game, Rougned Odor’s spiking of Angels second baseman Johnny Giavotella on the left shin while trying to break up a double play in the fifth inning, Scioscia said:

“I think it was on the reckless side. I think it was late, and I think his spikes were high. He dove right into Johnny’s shin.”

Odor got word to Giavotella that he was sorry for the slide, and he admitted to reporters afterward that “I was too late.” Scioscia, however, said the slide was within the rules, which require players to be able to touch the bag with their hand while breaking up a double play.

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna