HOUSTON _ Nobody in the Texas Rangers' clubhouse wanted to use the word or even acknowledge the idea it suggests.
Salvaging a series finale, a phrase used by baseball broadcasters, writers, managers and players alike, intrinsically admits something didn't exactly go well.
That was the case with the Rangers' four-game series against the Houston Astros this week at Minute Maid Park. The Rangers halted a four-game losing streak and prevented a sweep by taking the finale 10-4 Thursday afternoon. They salvaged the series finale.
"I don't really buy into any of the narrative that you're trying to avoid the sweep," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "You're trying to go out and win baseball games. Does it give you any momentum going into tomorrow? Tomorrow will let us know about that. It always looks like that when you go out and play well and put a win on the board. But it's about playing that day's game, nothing else."
The Rangers head to Seattle for a three-game series knowing they let a couple of games slip away against the first-place Astros. Two five-run leads in the first two games evaporated in big innings against the Rangers' beleaguered bullpen. Then the Astros clinched the series win (their first in a four-game series against the Rangers since 2014) with 10-1 laugher on Wednesday.
"I felt like we were in these games," said outfielder Delino DeShields, who is hitting over .300 and has scored eight runs since becoming an everyday player eight games ago. "They've got some good juju right now. We're dealing with some injuries, not saying that's an excuse, but I feel like we've been playing decent baseball and we're right there. We could be where they are right now."
The Astros are atop the American League West at 19-10, the second-best record in the majors and seven games ahead of the last-place Rangers at 12-17.
Carlos Gomez, who made a diving catch in the seventh inning on a sinking liner in shallow center field with the bases loaded to prevent another Astros comeback, dismissed the notion that Thursday was a must-win.
In fact, he intimated that the two rough losses to start the Lone Star Series may have been the kick in the pants the club needed.
"We have a really good team. This might be good, too, because it motivated us to start playing like we're supposed to," said Gomez, who went 2 for 4 with a hard-hit double off the left-field wall.
"We have a really special team and it's not because I'm here. If I'm on the other side, this is a tough team to face. You have five or six guys who can hit a home run at any time. You have five or six guys who can really run the bases. I know we've been struggling a little bit, in general, right now, but we know what we can do. Just keep going."
Joey Gallo's two-run homer during a three-run eighth helped give the bullpen some breathing room. The Rangers scored four in the first, including Rougned Odor's solo homer, and added runs in the second and fifth inning and another in the ninth on Elvis Andrus' solo homer.
A.J. Griffin (3-0), in his first start back from the disabled list, earned the win after holding the Astros to two runs (one earned) on six hits and a walk in five innings. He struck out seven and improved to 28-0 when receiving at least four runs of support.
Banister insisted his players don't fixate on the past, only the game in front of them.
"They've got a very short window of memory about what happened yesterday, or the day before," he said.
The Rangers host the Astros on June 2-4 at Globe Life Park and the players know the dates.
"It was nice to not let them sweep," DeShields said. "We see them in a couple weeks at our place, and we look forward to the same kind of energy, the same kind of atmosphere. It's going to be fun."
