Well, that answers the question, Was the Cincinnati series the downfall of the season for the Rangers?

No.

Being swept in Cincinnati, and in such embarrassing fashion, could have been devastating. It could have been, “Yeah, you were in first place, but you were playing over your head and reality just set in.”

And that very well could have happened if the Rangers still had their former, inexperienced manager in place.

The Game One loss to the Yankees and Gerrit Cole made it four losses in a row. But to be fair, everyone loses to Gerrit Cole. He is 6-0 with an ERA you’d need the Hubble Telescope to find. 

They even lost Jacob deGrom in the process. 

Yet, they bounced back in convincing fashion, beating the Yankees the next three, including an old-fashioned complete-game gem from Nathan Eovaldi (not the new-school six-inning complete game.) Then, the Rangers bats exploded to shock the Yankees.

Fifteen runs, including a jump start grand slam in the first off the bat of Josh Jung that really set the stage for this beat-down.

Nathanial Lowe, Adolis Garcia, and Josh Heim added home runs. 

Maybe it’s the Yankees who are the imposters this season and not the Rangers. Maybe the Cincinnati sweep with just one of those weird, inexplicable glitches that happen in the course of a season. And maybe the Rangers have the right man in the dugout who knows how to navigate around adversity.

They haven’t had one of those in quite a while, so they are not as easy to spot. 

The Texas Rangers beat the Yankees three times in a four-game series. 

The rumors of their demise were greatly exaggerated.

*****