This is the time of the year when the clock seems to slow down and the days are twice as long in anticipation.

While we wait, here is reminder of the greatness of the game. Here is a recap of the game in which Delino DeShields hit his first major league home run, which tied a game at home against the Tampa Bay Rays.

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FIRST CAREER HR FOR DeSHIELDS.
August 15, 2015

Delino DeShields hit a delino drive way over the left field wall for his first ever home run. It couldn’t have come at a better time. It tied the game at 3-3 in the seventh, after six frustrating innings of stranded runner after stranded runner, waisting gift walk after gift walk, and an all too typical inability to punch home that tying run.

After the game, DeShields remarked, “We are coming together at a crucial part of the year. We have a lot of confidence.”

They didn’t come together until the late innings. Fortunately, Martin Perez kept them close enough to come to life in the end.

Because, all of a sudden in the eighth, the entire offense awoke. A single by Beltre, a single by Moreland, a sacrifice fly by Hamilton, and a single by Andrus scored two more to put the game away 5-3.

And in the end, a team that couldn’t win at home for the first three months of the season has now won 8 out of its last 9 at the Ballpark (after being a team that couldn’t lose on the road and losing four of six). Last night’s victory of Tampa Bay makes it two come from behind victories in a row.

DeShields is right. That is the kind of thing that can build confidence, which builds momentum, which builds winning streaks, which builds moving up in the standings, which builds confidence, which keeps the whole thing going.

But we have seen these quick reversals of fortunes before. It’s best not to get too excited about the Rangers or too depressed about them and just take the wins when they come.

We have seen the ups. Like an elevator, they are followed by the downs. The Rangers don’t seem to know what floor to get off on.