Texas Rangers

Do I really need to say anything or can I just SMILE!

I'll touch on a couple things:

Yankee “Home Runs”

The Texas Rangers are—can you believe it?—but one win away from their first-ever trip to the World Series. They are one win away from sitting down the Mighty Yankees, the Bronx Bombers, Baseball’s Bullies. One win away. Just one.

“It’s time.”

This has been the slogan, the mantra, the battle-cry all season long from this club.

“It’s about time.”

Did you ever think, in the middle of October, we'd still be talking about the Texas Rangers?

Normally this time of year is reserved for the Dallas Cowboys and football. Instead, the Cowboys have not only taken a back seat but they've been so bad that the Rangers have gotten top billing on just about every radio station in town.

Let me take you back to Opening Day here in Arlington, Texas.

Just taking a glance at Cliff Lee on television from time to time, you likely wouldn’t find yourself to be overly impressed.

He will never throw harder than 93 with his fastball. He doesn’t do anything funky with his motion. He is very deliberate and has a plan of attack for the hitters.

In some ways, he could be classified as boring.

Before the game yesterday, Cliff Lee facts were trending on Twitter (#cliffleefacts). Some of the facts were ridiculous, such as "Cy Young won five Cliff Lee Awards", and "Neftali Feliz does not have to come to the game when Cliff Lee pitches, because Cliff Lee needs no closer."

If not for one inning, the Texas Rangers would be staring at a three-game-to-none lead in the ALCS against the team that is supposed to dominate in the playoffs.

They've dominated 26 of the 27 innings played, and they've outscored the defending champion New York Yankees 21-8, including an 8-0 shutout on Monday night.

When Josh Hamilton grounded out to end Game 1 on Friday night, a game where the Texas Rangers let a 5-0 lead slip away in their own ballpark to the dreaded New York Yankees, eventually losing the game 6-5, I sent the following message to my friend via Facebook chat:

"Series over."

"Yup," he replied.

Because there was no way the Rangers were going to be able to recover from a loss like that in a seven-game series. 

After last night's performance, there is no way the Texas Rangers can let Cliff Lee walk as a free agent.

Even winning the World Series this season would not be worth it to the franchise if Lee walks, goes to a rival playoff team like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox or even their division rival Los Angeles Angels*.

The Yankees came back home to open up their end of the ALCS and even with big-game Andy Pettitte on the mound, they couldn't defeat Cliff Lee.

The Rangers, behind their ace, put up two early runs and rode Lee to victory. Lee was unhittable and didn't even allow a hit until the fifth inning.

The Rangers' offense exploded in the ninth for six additional runs as Texas took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Here's a report card, breaking down every angle of the Rangers' 8-0 win.

The Texas Rangers could very easily be up 2-0 on the New York Yankees right now and quite frankly should be.  They blew a huge opportunity on Friday night and they know it.  These MLB Playoffs are all about seizing the moment and making the most of your opportunity.  While the Rangers have done that well thus far in October, they could have had the defending World Champions on the ropes.  Now, the series turns to the Bronx with Cliff Lee opposing Andy Pettite in a pivotal Game 3 on Monday night.