ARLINGTON, Texas _ The "never, ever quit" mantra of Rangers manager Jeff Banister now faces the ultimate test.
The Rangers entered the postseason with great expectations ... and justifiably so. They finished with the best record in the American League, which gave them home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. And no American League team was better on its home field this season than the Rangers, who won 65 percent of their games at the Globe.
The Rangers also had two aces sitting at the top of their starting rotation with All-Star arms, Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish. So visions of a 2-0 start against the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS _ and anyone else who showed up on the October dance card _ seemed both logical and realistic.
But two games into the ALDS, the home field and the aces both abandoned the Rangers. Toronto pummeled Hamels in Game 1 and then blasted Darvish in Game 2, taking a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series. And the Blue Jays have not even thrown their best pitcher at the Rangers yet. Aaron Sanchez with his 15-2 record and AL-leading 3.00 earned run average takes the mound for Toronto in Game 3 Sunday.
The Rangers now must win three games in a row to reach the ALCS, which means a strong outing from Colby Lewis Sunday in Toronto is imperative. But his last win came on June 16. Since then, Lewis has spent more than two months on the disabled list and lost five consecutive starts.
Which brings us back to Hamels and Darvish. The Rangers were expecting quality starts and quality innings from their two quality starters. Instead, they combined to pitch just 81/3 innings against the Blue Jays, allowing 11 hits and 12 runs with four walks and five home runs. Hamels left after 31/3 innings with his team behind 7-0 and Darvish departed after five innings with the Rangers trailing, 5-1.
Not exactly ace material.
Hamels couldn't keep Toronto off the bases and Darvish couldn't keep the Blue Jays in the ballpark. Hamels allowed six hits and three walks in his three-plus innings. Darvish allowed only five hits _ but four of them were home runs. It was the first time this season that a Texas starter has surrendered four home runs in a single game. It also was the first time in his career Darvish has allowed four homers in a game, much less three in one inning as he did in the fifth.
Bad timing for a team with World Series expectations.
Darvish entered the postseason coming off two strong starts, having beaten Oakland, 4-0, and Tampa Bay, 3-1. But neither the A's nor the Rays presented the offensive challenge of the Blue Jays, who finished fourth in all of baseball in home runs. Troy Tulowitzki, Kevin Pillar, Ezequiel Carrera and Edwin Encarnacion all unloaded on Darvish Friday.
"Four unexecuted pitches," Banister said, "four home runs."
Hamels also had a strong outing in late September against the A's, pitching seven innings in a 3-0 victory. But he won only one of his last six outings and didn't pitch into the fifth inning in two of them. So there were trouble signs heading into October. Still, Hamels had a history of pitching well on baseball's biggest stage with seven post-season victories and a 3.03 earned run average.
But even if pitching couldn't keep the Rangers in a game, the hitting was expected to. The Rangers were the seventh highest scoring team in baseball, averaging 4.7 runs per game. They were even more explosive at the Globe, pushing across 5.3 runs per game.
The Rangers outhit the Blue Jays 13-6 Friday but could muster only three runs across. Four runs in two postseason games against a team with both the pitching and the hitting of the Blue Jays would not _ and did not _ get the job done.
"We didn't get the hit when we needed it," Banister said. "They made some pitches in some situations that we didn't."
With Darvish, Hamels and the home field now in the rear view mirror headed to Toronto, all that is left for the Rangers to embrace is their "never, ever quit" motto _ and see how far that can carry them in the face of some very long odds.
