ANAHEIM, Calif. — Needing a miracle, the Rangers had vowed to fight to their final gasp as they opened a last-stand four-game series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim here Monday night. They never dreamed the Angels wouldn’t even give them room to breathe.

It wasn’t painless, but at least it was quick.

The Angels clinched the AL West championship by burying the Rangers, 11-0, forcing them to watch glumly from the visitors dugout as they celebrated in front of more than 40,000 fans at Angels Stadium.

In the Rangers’ postgame clubhouse there was no talk about the strides the team made this year, no satisfaction over staying in the race until the final week of the season.

“To be honest with you, the first thing that crosses my mind is just being [hissed] off,” said Michael Young, who returned to the Rangers’ lineup at third base for the first time in two weeks and only the second time this month. “I don’t care about the future or what our team shapes up like next year. I don’t care about that. I care about winning now.

“In the big leagues you either go to the postseason or you go home. We didn’t get it done and that’s not a good feeling.”

The Rangers began this final seven-game road trip knowing they had to win all seven games and then get some help from the A’s. Instead, they never had a chance.

The Angels jumped rookie starter Tommy Hunter for three runs in the first, two on Kendry Morales’ home run over the center field fence and never let up, knocking Hunter out in the third and building an 8-0 lead by the time four innings were complete.

Angels’ right-hander Ervin Santana did his part in finishing off the Rangers, spinning a seven-hitter and persuading the Texas hitters to roll into three double plays.

The Rangers are still alive — barely — in the wild-card race, because the Red Sox lost, 11-8, to Toronto earlier Monday, but the Texas loss trimmed Boston’s magic number to just one.

The Rangers not only couldn’t hit and couldn’t pitch, but couldn’t play defense either, chipping in three errors to make it an all-around miserable night.

“I don’t think we laid down and gave them anything. They just beat up on us tonight,” manager Ron Washington said. “Our backs was against the wall. They came out and jumped on us early and kept pouring it on. We couldn’t get nothing going against Santana. That’s the bottom line.”

The lone bright spot — but only about 40-watt bright — for the Rangers was that Young returned to the lineup and went 2-for-3, including a first-inning double that represented the team’s only extra base hit. Washington wisely gave Young the rest of the night off after six innings when the game was clearly out of hand.

Hunter, pounded for seven runs in his last start against Oakland, put up even less resistance against the Angels, coughing up another seven this time in just 2 1/3 innings, by far his most abbreviated start of the season.

“I just told them to keep their heads up,” said Washington, who pointed to the Rangers’ recent 2-7 homestand as the real culprit in dooming the Rangers. “ We didn’t get it done but there are still games to be played. We didn’t finish first but I’d like to win as many more games as we possibly can. We certainly don’t want to fall all the way down to third or fourth, that’s for sure.

“I’m disappointed that we didn’t accomplish what we had a chance to accomplish but I’m very proud of those guys in that clubhouse. They’re not happy but they played their hearts out and when it was all over, the best team won it.”

He’s right, the Rangers weren’t happy and the best team did win.

“I feel the same way I felt last year, and the year before that, and the year before that,” said second baseman Ian Kinsler, who also had two hits. “Every athlete says you take this feeling into the off-season, into your workouts, into the batting cage.

“It stinks. We’re going home just like the [Washington] Nationals, just like whoever has the worst record in baseball. We have a lot of things to think about, things we accomplished, things we can build on, but the bottom line is we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish.”

Only a handful of Rangers players remained in the dugout to watch a rather subdued Angels celebration, which ultimately included a group trip out to the center field fence, where several players poured beer and champagne over a picture of Nick Adenhart, the young Angels pitcher who died in a car accident right after the season began.

“The Angels had a great year,” Young said. “They overcame a tremendous amount of adversity and they deserve it. They deserve a tremendous amount of credit.

“But from our side, it’s not a good feeling. We have to get better. It’s as simple as that.”