Just Win, Baby

Allow me to be the latest in a far-too-long line of writers to use that obnoxious cliché.  In this instance, however, I have sound reasoning to defend the use of it, unlike most other writers who mistakenly think the catchphrase fits their articles.

Earlier this evening the Texas Rangers won Game 2 of the World Series under the most unlikely of circumstances.  It was a complete pitchers' duel right from the start between Colby Lewis and Jaime Garcia.  I predicted the Rangers would win in a high-scoring battle where both starters would be out by the 6th inning.  It was the complete opposite.  Luckily for Texas, though, it's not how you start, it's how you finish.

The Rangers have always been the team that scores oh-so-many runs.  Back in the day, Alex Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro would launch bombs in virtually every game, followed by the annually incompetent pitching staff giving the lead away.  But no, the 2011 Rangers are a different team.  They're a baseball team.  Not a get-out-the-tape-measure corporate softball event that was the early 2000s Rangers team.

Well yeah, the Rangers still score better than hardly anyone else.  But the pitching has arrived, and not coincidentally, so has the winning.  On this night, there was little winning in sight after that annoying little La Russa-pet Allen Craig singled home the go-ahead run in the 7th to make the game 1-0.  There was no offense in sight, either, until Ian Kinsler singled to start the 9th.  He came up with the huge clutch steal Dave Roberts-style to get into scoring position and eventually scored on a Josh Hamilton sac fly.  Another sac fly scored Elvin Andrus and the Rangers took the lead 2-1 thanks to a blown save from the dominating hardballer Jason Motte.

Wanna hear about a team with bullpen issues?  How about one that used three closers in the regular season, the first of which was a soft tossing 38-year-old who is no longer in baseball?  What if that team also made the World Series?  Yeah, that's the St. Louis Cardinals in all their glory.  To their credit, Motte has shut down hitters most of the season.  But Motte blew the biggest save of his life tonight.  And the Rangers, using some rare smallball, came back and won, which dramatically swung the Series odds in their favor.

With the win, the Rangers don't even have to go back to St. Louis if they could win three in a row at home.  Like I said before, it took a baseball team to win this game.  The Rangers now have a complete one.  Even though they only scored four runs in the two games in St. Louis, they found a way to win a game, and that's all that matters.