Defiant Rangers Serve Notice With First Playoff Series Win

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Deep in the heart of Texas, in the shadow of a monstrous football stadium and football passion, lies a baseball team.

A good one.

"I think this put our franchise on the map," one Rangers official said Tuesday after the team clinched its first-ever playoff series win by defeating the Rays 5-1 at Tropicana Field.

Time for America to take notice of the Rangers. Formerly known for wasting a quarter-billion dollars on Alex Rodriguez, with a reputation for bashing home runs and not much else, this is a complete team.

They won Tuesday with baserunning and pitching, only homering to cap off the scoring in the ninth inning, a two-run shot by Ian Kinsler.

"If you'd have thought that we would win a game of this magnitude the way we did," team president and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan said, "nobody would have ever thought that. It says volumes about where this organization's come to.

"I think the players believe that whatever they have to do to win a ballgame, they're capable of doing it. And they showed it tonight."

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Kinsler not only hit three homers in the series but also had one of the team's two groundouts Tuesday that scored a runner from second base.

"I don't know if anyone's been watching us," Kinsler said, "but we're in the playoffs -- surprise! -- and we've ran the bases like this all year.

"This is the most complete team in the big leagues right now."

No one was watching as TBS and Major League Baseball relegated the series to four day games. They will now, as facing the Yankees in the ALCS thrusts the Rangers into primetime, literally and figuratively.

"For people that haven't saw the Texas Rangers play," manager Ron Washington said, "that's not the first time we did that on the basepaths.

"It may prove (something) to some people that haven't seen us play. We might not have won almost 100 games, but we certainly didn't back into the (AL) West. We won the West. And we deserve what we got here."

We might not have won almost 100 games, but we certainly didn't back into the (AL) West. We won the West. And we deserve what we got here."
- Ron Washington Less than three months ago, the Rangers' ownership was unsettled, with a bankruptcy judge overseeing its sale. But because the team had done such a good job acquiring talent in the draft and internationally, it could still make trades even though payroll was virtually frozen.

The big acquisition, of course, was Cliff Lee, who won Games 1 and 5 of the Division Series to run his career postseason record to 6-0.

Lee had faced the Rangers 10 times in his career before joining them (to the tune of a 5.55 ERA) but had a lot to learn about his new club -- the same things most of America doesn't know about.

"It's a complete team," Lee said. "I didn't realize they had as good pitching as we have. I knew the offense was unbelievable. I didn't know the pitching. I didn't know this bullpen was as good as it was. They do everything the right way."

When C.J. Wilson, the likely starter in Friday's Game 1 against the Yankees, came up with Rangers in 2005, "It was just a bunch of sluggers. But a lot of those guys have evolved into multiple-threat guys.

"There's so many different ways that we feel that we can win a game, and we've shown a bunch of different stuff all year. But now, I think other people are going to see it."

The Rangers went first-to-third on a single more times than any team in baseball. They had the fourth-fewest strikeouts in the AL.

The main ingredient, of course, is pitching.

General manager Jon Daniels remembers hearing, "When are the Rangers going to get some pitching?"

Said Daniels as he wrung champagne out of his T-shirt, "The reality is we won this year, we won the division, we got to this point, pitching-first. We pitched our way here."

Even with just 15 starts from Lee, Texas had the league's fourth-best ERA (3.93), third-best average allowed (.246) and the second-best bullpen ERA (3.38).

Lee won't be able to go in the ALCS until Game 3, but Washington isn't concerned.

"We've got other guys to go out there and hold it together until Cliff gets his days to come back," he said.

"I think it's going to be a great series," Rays manager Joe Maddon said of the ALCS, "and I'll tell you why: because I think Texas is similar to us in a lot of respects. I think they're a little bit more offensive, though. That's pretty obvious.

"They play good defense, run the bases well, good starting pitching and they have a very nice bullpen that you can match up with, because they have all the lefties. You have to have some lefties out there to match up with the Yankees."

Washington, a former utility infielder, said the team reminds him of himself in some ways, hard-working and scrappy.

"Our team has jelled so well," Wilson said, "because we have a lot of guys who are cut from the same cloth. We have a lot of blue-collar guys and then the superstar guys are down-to-earth. It allows us to all get along and pull for each other."

Not something anyone ever says about the Yankees.

The Texas franchise had never before won a postseason series, and only five players on the Division Series roster had playoff experience. By Game 5, that didn't matter.

"To come in here and win on the road," senior Ranger Michael Young said as he tapped his chest, "says a lot about what this team has in here. It's been the strength of our team all season long, the way we play the game, our style of play."

And they get to face the Yankees no longer postseason virgins.

"If the nerves, the jitters were there, they should be gone at this point," Josh Hamilton said.

"It's not like we're going in intimidated. We're going in feeling like we can compete with them."

The Rangers are ready for the Bombers. They already took down one AL East team.

"We pitched better than them, we ran the bases better than them, we played better defense than them," Kinsler said. "That's why we won here."