Ninety games into the season, the Rangers decide to show up. 

They scored a run in the first. Usually, that’s their run for the game, and they take eight innings off for self-evaluation.

When Nathan Eovaldi gave up a two-run homer in the third, the game was falling into a familiar script. The Rangers had a double and a single to lead off the second and didn’t score. That was frustrating. And typical. And after giving up the lead in the top of the third, the Rangers went down one-two-three in the bottom of the third.

It was shaping up to be another Rangers games. Until the fourth inning. Where did that come from? It seems 2023 called and they wanted their Rangers back. Single. Single. Single. Strikeout. Single. Flyout. Walk. Home run. Six runs. In one inning. The Rangers have been struggling to score six runs in one week. 

Then it happened again in the fifth inning. Single. Walk. Single. Single. Single. Single. The first six batters reached, three more runs. It was 10-2. 

The Rangers tacked on a run in the sixth. A run in the seventh. And a run in the eighth. 

When it was all over, they had thirteen runs on nineteen hits. They swept Tampa Bay. And for one brief, shining moment, they have brought hope back to Rangers Nation.

Is it too little too late? Or better late than never?

*****  
TODAY’S GAME: