A year ago on this very field, the San Francisco Giants had celebrated after five games, leaving the Rangers to smile thinly and claim a hearty, well-intentioned, very, very lovely season. That team, too, had gone where no Rangers team had gone, and yet on the morning of Nov. 2 they were runners-up. Theyd left with a nice pennant, lots of cool memories, a promise – well, not a promise exactly – but an objective to return.
Theyd let the pennant linger for a few days, along with the ultimately disappointing World Series, before the front office staff reconvened.
We talked a lot internally, Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said over the weekend. We didnt want to be known as a one-hit wonder. We didnt want to look back 10 years from now and say, Nice accomplishment. But we werent able to build on it.
So they started back, an inch at a time. They remade the near-championship season, put themselves back in the place where it went wrong, played their game, lifted themselves with the lessons of experience, waited for the other guy to commit the gaffe, and are now within inches.
Texas second baseman Ian Kinsler tags out Allen Craig at second base to complete a double play in the ninth inning of Game 5.
(US Presswire)
Bottom line, Daniels said, the players have to get it done on the field. And they have.
Their eyes, almost to a man, nearly glazed at the thought. The concept – one win, one championship – seemed almost too simple to comprehend. Theyd made impressive work of win today, allowing the rest to follow, ignoring yesterday and tomorrow. And now win today means parade tomorrow, and if theyd all plastered their hands to their ears and sung nonsensically theyd have not been more obvious.
We want to stay in the moment, manager Ron Washington insisted. We want to play our game. And if its good enough Wednesday, well win. If not, well play Thursday.
They shuffled warily to the threshold Monday night.
While the Cardinals were leaving runners scattered across the basepaths, the Rangers went lean. Down 2-0, they got a solo home run from Mitch Moreland, then another from Adrian Beltre(notes), the kind that – when he finishes his swing – he takes a knee, like hes in the front row of the Little League team picture. Chris Carpenter, the Cardinals starter, cursed himself, cursed the world, cursed Napoli, the way he does. Then Napoli, against a rattled Cardinals coaching staff and the men it sent from the bullpen, scalded an eighth-inning slider into right-center field, scored two more, and the Rangers took a lead into the ninth.
Maybe it was a static-y phone line. Maybe the Cardinals panicked. But the wrong guy kept pitching to the wrong guy, and it just kept getting better for the Rangers, and finally the whole thing leaked into the ninth. The Rangers won that, too, when Craig kept breaking from first base on full-count pitches, and Pujols kept fouling them off, and then Pujols missed.
For the first time in the series, yes, Pujols had struck out. So, for the second time in three innings, Craig was thrown out trying to steal, inexcusably with Pujols at the plate.
You never think strike-him-out, throw-him-out, said Kinsler, who applied the tag. Its a really difficult play. And Pujols is not going to strike out very often.
Oh, but he did. And some Rangers did indeed dare to see it happen.
I think we were all thinking about that, said David Murphy(notes), who watched from the bench. Everybody in the game respects Albert Pujols … but its the game of baseball, and nobodys perfect in this game.
Funny thing about that. The Rangers are closer than theyve ever been. Not to perfection, not even related, but to something theyve never been.
Don’t forget the things you once you owned. Treasure the things you can’t get. Don't give up the things that belong to you and keep those lost things in memory. nfl jersey supply
Read More From icefire time
|
