Rangers start packing up, moving on from Game 5
Lockers were cleaned out and boxes were packed to be shipped Thursday at Globe Life Park, where Texas Rangers players and coaches filtered in and out of their clubhouse the day after their season ended.
None of them wanted to be there, and none of them expected to be there.
But there they were after a 6-3 loss Wednesday in Game 5 of the American League Division Series. A 3-2 seventh-inning lead vanished in the flash of three errors, another play that wasn’t made and a mammoth three-run homer, another formula for a devastating end for a winning ballclub.
Game 5 will live in infamy with the other notable defeats. It’s not as painful as Game 6 of the 2011 World Series but probably a tick more troubling than Game 162 in 2012. Yet again, the Rangers have to move on.
Just kind of what happened, baseball is something that you learn something every day, and as long as you play it and even when you’re not playing it, you’re going to see something very unusual.
Rangers left-hander Cole Hamels
“I’ve been a part of many of these types of moments, come away with one World Series, but I’ve been to the postseason quite a few times and it’s all the same,” left-hander Cole Hamels said. “You play your hearts out and you want to get that opportunity. Ultimately at the end of any season, you want to know that you’re going to the postseason and you just want to make sure that you’re there and you have those moments to be able to have the opportunity to try to win.
“You reflect on it probably, years past and just knowing though that we were in that situation. I think we learned a lot about each other. It’s going to lead into what we can do next season, and truly, it’s the place that you want to be.”
Even if in that place players find gut-wrenching defeat, the kind that left shortstop Elvis Andrus sullen but accountable for two of the errors in the Blue Jays’ four-run seventh.
That devilish inning, in which the Rangers went ahead when a throw from Toronto catcher Russell Martin hit Shin-Soo Choo in the hand and allowed Rougned Odor to come home and sparked a near revolt from the Rogers Centre crowd, didn’t come at the end of the game but, in essence, it ended the game.
The inning that got away in the regular-season finale in 2012 was the fifth, when Josh Hamilton missed a routine fly ball and, far more costly, Ryan Dempster couldn’t hold a 5-1 lead. The Rangers lost the division title, then lost the wild-card game.
Rehashing 2011 would be piling onto a Rangers fan base that remembers it vividly and is trying to heal from a fresh wound from Game 5.
“It’s just something in the universe, I don’t know,” center fielder Delino DeShields said Wednesday. “Baseball, anything can happen, and that was a prime example.”
The disappointing end shouldn’t overshadow a Rangers season that no one expected. They were AL West champions without right-hander Yu Darvish and after an 8-16 start to the season.
Two strong months to close the season, which included the acquisition of Hamels and the rebirth of Choo, led to a taste of the postseason and generated optimism for 2016.
Darvish is expected to be back by May to form a 1-2 punch atop the rotation with Hamels. The core of the team, including all 10 players in the Game 5 starting lineup, remains under contract.
Right-handers Yovani Gallardo and Colby Lewis are the top two contributors who can be free agents. The Rangers will also have interest in trying to keep slugger Mike Napoli.
With so much returning from a championship-caliber team, the Rangers won’t be picked among the worst teams in baseball next season.
“We’re very excited to look forward to next year, and this gives us something to work toward,” Hamels said. “Nobody really was counting on Texas to be something. We can build off these moments, and next year I think is going to be really exciting for us.”
Jeff Wilson: 817-390-7760, @JeffWilson_FWST
This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Rangers start packing up, moving on from Game 5."