ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Hold on a second, people. This thing ain't over yet.
The Texas Rangers got off the mat this weekend after taking a standing eight count earlier in the week.
Whether it was smelling salts, a slap in the face, or just a realization that time is running out, the Rangers rallied for three comeback wins over the Tampa Bay Rays, including a 6-5 win Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field.
They return to Globe Life Park in Arlington after going 5-5 on their post-All-Star break road trip against the Royals, Orioles and Rays (all postseason contending teams). Texas won the first two before dropping five in a row to tie their season-high losing streak. They looked like sellers with the July 31 trade deadline approaching when they arrived in Florida. But are they as a nine-game homestand begins Monday against the Marlins?
"We're a contending team," Elvis Andrus said. "We're the reigning West champions. That has to be our attitude. Whatever happened in the season, that's in the past. We have too much talent to play the way we've been playing."
One of the integral parts of the offense, Rougned Odor, showed up big on Sunday. He had two home runs, including a game-tying, two-run homer in the eighth. Carlos Gomez followed Odor with a go-ahead solo homer that put the Rangers up for good. The bullpen, another area that burned the Rangers earlier in the season, was outstanding in the series, especially Sunday. Starter Tyson Ross left with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth, but Tony Barnette came in and got a fly out to end the inning and hold the deficit to 5-2.
Barnette had four strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings of relief before Matt Bush and Jason Grilli each pitched a scoreless inning. Jose Leclerc earned his second save, despite putting the go-ahead runs on with two walks in the ninth. After a visit from manager Jeff Banister, Leclerc struck out Steven Souza swinging on three consecutive changeups to end the game. The bullpen threw 10 1/3 scoreless innings in the series.
"I just wanted to make sure we were going at the right pace, were settled down and focused on the set of pitches we wanted to throw and how we wanted to attack Souza," Banister said.
The wild-card race is still a log jam of eight teams and the Rangers are still at the bottom of the scrum, 2 { games back of the second wild-card spot.
The Rangers are not only headed home for the next nine, however, they're headed home for 36 of their last 64 games. Five of those road games are against NL East teams the Braves and Mets who are currently under .500 and could soon go into full looking at next season mode. They also play the Athletics (44-54) 10 more times.
Adrian Beltre, who had two hits, including his first triple of the season, hopes the offense has turned a corner for the stretch run.
"Our offense is not where we want it to be right now. We're doing better. We're doing things when we need to do them," he said. "It's a work in progress. Sometimes teams go through a little funk, it's not one or two guys, it's the whole team. We know we can do better than we have. Hopefully, we can do this more often."
Working against them? The still have to play other AL West teams a bunch of times. They have six games remaining with the division-leading Astros, who are still winning at a ridiculous pace. They have 10 more against both the Mariners and Angels. Both clubs are right in the middle of the wild card scramble with the Rangers.
"Our guys know what the urgency is to win baseball games," Banister said. "To win them in the fashion that we did in this set of three, just a show of heart and grit that these guys have, I think it's a huge plus for us going forward."
