ARLINGTON, Texas _ The legend of Danny Santana grows.
Barely 12 hours after taking a 97 mph fastball off his right ankle and needing to be helped off the field, Santana limped into the Rangers clubhouse Sunday determined to convince the Rangers he could play. He spent three hours getting treatment, taped up his ankle, ran a couple of sprints and then tackled the hardest part: Making the Rangers believe his spiel.
"I told them a lot of times," Santana said through an interpreter after scoring the winning run on a sacrifice fly in Sunday's 5-4 10-inning win over St. Louis. "I wanted them to believe me."
There will be no more questions.
Not after he ambled to the plate in the eighth inning and gave the Rangers a pinch hit homer that put them in the position to win the game in regulation. And certainly not after he walked in the 10th, with the Rangers trailing by a run, went to third on Willie Calhoun's pinch hit single and then scored on a shallow sacrifice fly by Nomar Mazara.
"After he ran, he said he was 100 percent," manager Chris Woodward said. "I was pretty happy to hear it. He's pretty tough."
So was he actually "100 percent?"
After a pause, "I felt that I was" Santana said, the hint of a smile curling from his mouth.
Santana came to the plate in the eighth inning in place of Ronald Guzman to face lefty Andrew Miller. On a 2-2 fastball, he pulled a pitch into the left field seats to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead. St. Louis tied it on Dexter Fowler's ninth-inning homer and took the lead in the 10th.
In the 10th, following Rougned Odor's leadoff single against 102-mph-throwing Jordan Hicks, Santana worked his way to a walk, then went to third without issue on Calhoun's game-tying hit. That gave him confidence to go on Mazara's shallow fly ball to center.
"He showed how tough he is," Mazara said. "And he's fast. If you have a guy like that at third base, you don't have to do too much with the ball."
