Texas Rangers' Long, Strange Road Trip Starts Rough, Ends Rolling in Playoffs
BALTIMORE — Marcus Semien has been anxious to return to his 38-week pregnant wife and kids.
Rookie slugger Josh Jung is looking forward to doing some laundry and wearing a new polo. He's been wearing the same blue Travis Matthew polo for nearly every day during the Texas Rangers' two-week odyssey from coast to coast.
And 21-year-old rookie Evan Carter isn't fazed by anything. He's still living out of a hotel in Arlington.
The team returned home to DFW late Sunday night, tired but elated to be leading 2-0 over the Baltimore Orioles in the best-of-five American League Division Series. Game 3 is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Globe Life Field.
The Rangers can earn a trip to the ALCS — their first since 2011 — with a sweep. Or a win in Game 4 on Wednesday. Or Game 5 on Friday.
"Bumpy, exciting. It's been an emotional roller coaster," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. "So that's never easy to handle."
The Rangers needed two wins (or two Houston Astros losses) during the final weekend of the season to win the American League West and earn a bye. Instead, Texas finished the season with a 1-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners and tied with the Astros with a 90-72 record. The Astros won the West because of their head-to-head record against the Rangers.
"You know, it's been a lot of – you had your highs and lows obviously. When we were in Seattle we wanted to win the division. We weren't able to do that," said Nathan Eovaldi, who will start Game 3. "And then we had to fly to Tampa and the main goal was getting to the postseason. We got there. And then now with the regular season done, it's go out there and try to win as many games as we can to win the World Series."
So far, so good. The Rangers left Arlington on Sept. 24 on a flight to Anaheim for a three-game series with the Los Angeles Angels. The four-game series at Seattle followed with the Rangers going 1-3.
"I couldn't be prouder of these guys," said Bochy, who couldn't recall a longer road trip in his nearly 50 years in the game. "We had a five-and-a-half-hour flight to Tampa, how they were able to put that behind them and play two of their best games against an outstanding ball club, pitching, hitting, really all facets of the game.
"And so this club has just shown tremendous ability to put the tough times behind us. So we've done some celebrating. We've had some tough losses. So it's been an emotional roller coaster."
A trip such as the one the Rangers have been on, which has included the lowest of the lows, and so far in the playoffs, some of the club's highest highs, could go either way for a team. Safe to say, their four consecutive postseason wins, including a two-game sweep in the Wild Card round against the Tampa Bay Rays, have helped the team rally and form an even deeper bond.
"It’s fair to say, but it can go the other way, you can get sick of each other," Bochy said. "But it’s been good for the guys. Tough series there in Seattle, not getting that last win, and having to fly to Tampa. Yeah, I think that does do something to bring the club together."
Jung said he thinks he remembers where he lives, and hoped his truck was still parked at the airport lot when the team arrived late Sunday.
His lucky polo, which he bought a while back and "got me a couple of hits," has been his go-to shirt during the trip, even if it hasn't been washed. Same with his black jeans.
"It’s got to get done," he said of a laundry session. "The jeans and polo I’ve been rocking for a week probably need to get washed."
On second thought, he might not wash the polo just yet. Jung is hitting .375 in the playoffs with a homer, triple, three doubles and three RBI.
Did the disappointing finish in Seattle catapult the Rangers into their current run?
"For me, it was a wake-up call. Now, it’s do-or-die time. You either do it or you don’t do. So I think that’s really what got us going," Jung said.
"Getting on that cross-country flight from Seattle to Tampa 'sucked,'" he added. "You just lost the division, 1-0. Our offense was dead. Everyone just sat there for a minute [in the clubhouse], like, ‘Damn, we just let that slip through our fingertips.' We had to take care of business twice in Seattle and we did not, so that was hard."
During the flight to Tampa, however, the team had relaxed and turned the page.
No sage speeches from Bochy were necessary, Jung said.
"It was all clear to everybody," he said. "And now we’re getting on a five-hour flight to Tampa to play a really good ballclub. You think, 'Well, this might be a long one.' An hour into the flight it was fine."
Jung said the club was pressing in Seattle, getting out of their comfort zones at the plate and trying to do too much. Semien remembers being at the plate in the ninth, with a runner on the Rangers trailing 1-0.
"If I can hit a homer, I get to go home. It didn’t happen, but this is what we signed up for," Semien said after Sunday's 11-8 Game 2 win at Camden Yards. "But we’re past that and get to go home tonight. I miss my kids, I miss my wife, I miss my bed."
Yes, the Seattle debacle forced the Rangers to take the tough route through the postseason.
"The lesson there was to don’t put so much pressure on one game, or one at-bat,' Jung said. "You could tell, every at-bat we were trying to do way too much. Everybody clenched up tight. You could tell we were pressing in all facets of the game really."
The Rangers let go in Florida, as both the pitching and hitting came together in the sweep.
"I think you’re kind of seeing the resurgence of our offense that we had in the first half. The depth of our lineup is crazy," Jung said. "It felt like there for a little bit we were a little bit one-dimensional, especially in Seattle."
Reliever Josh Sborz might be in the minority by calling the 14-day trip "fun." But the past four wins probably have a lot to do with that.
"When we got in this playoff hunt, we were not necessarily playing our best. And all of a sudden we flipped the switch and we're back to a normal team," he said. "But it just comes down to the guys we have. We've kind of kept the same tone throughout the entire year. We never panicked, we never stressed. We knew we could do it just as a team and just stayed comfortable the whole time."
You can follow Stefan Stevenson on Twitter@StefanVersusTex.
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