The Elusive Rangers Series Win

There was a moment there just after the Rangers exited their golden bases-loaded, no-out opportunity in the bottom of the eighth inning with just a single run, but before Neftali Feliz successfully walked the ninth-inning tightrope, that a strange emotion washed over me -- deflation. It's not an emotion you're supposed to encounter after your team has just retaken the late-game lead with its bullpen ace only requiring three outs to seal the series win, but there it was, and though the narrative turned out to be one of the happily-ever-after sort, there's still something about it all that bothers me.

Never mind Elvis Andrus's inning-ending fly out to left-center field, which actually seemed to have a bit of jet stream-induced "oomph" behind it, and never mind Endy Chavez's lifeless one-out pop out with the bases still juiced (upon further reflection, I don't know that swapping him out for Mitch Moreland would have imparted a great overall benefit, since that would have entailed bringing him cold off the bench and then downgrading the outfield defense going into the top of the ninth inning). No, what I think continues to bother me is the no-out Craig Gentry bunt -- an apparent botched squeeze play of some sort (presumably suicide) on a hitter's count against an opposite-handed pitcher seemingly on the ropes. I'm not sure whose idea that was, and I may be the only person still bugged by that sequence, but I hope not to see it again.

With that obligatory and likely unnecessary gripe about a series-clinching win out of the way, I can toss some plaudits in the directions of Chris Davis (who at least serves more of a purpose on this roster now than he did before Nelson Cruz and Julio Borbon succumbed to injury, and who fortuitously blooped the game-winning single), Adrian Beltre (his 1-for-2, one-homer, two-walk showing amounted to a .366 WPA, or his highest single-game mark since becoming a Ranger, and he's now quietly hitting .252/.304/.503), and Ian Kinsler, who authored his first four-hit game since the great Six-For-Six Cycle of April 2009. It may have taken a little longer than we all would have preferred, but this team seems to have overcome its worrisome state of malaise and is, for the time being at least, back on the track that it needs to be on.