Before we begin with with the morning links, let's just take a look at the end of yesterday's game one last time so we can remember that it did indeed happen. "He's gonna be out from here to Waco...no they called him safe! They called him safe! How in the world do you make that call?!" is now my favorite call.
Indeed, the Rangers snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in a fashion that we had not seen this season, but also in a way that pretty much had to be seen to be believed. How many times do you see the, "Well, our back-up middle infielder has less of a chance of getting a hit than our back-up catcher has the chance to score from first on a single..."? Never? Anthony Andro recaps the Rangers' gamble that paid off.
Calvin Watkins reacts to the game by seemingly detailing the terrible things that happened, including Alexi Ogando's defense-ruined bad five run 4th inning, Brayan Pena's hero status with the bat, and Neftali Feliz's continued troubles. And yet, thanks to two late-inning rallies, in a season with practically zero, the Rangers celebrated their first walkoff win.
MLB.com's Louie Horvath recaps the game and has quotes from both Mike Napoli and Brayan Pena about the play at the plate. And in case anyone doubts that the umpire made the right call:
I feel terrible about it. It was just a mistake," Pena said. "I thought that I had him, but when I saw the replay, I could tell that he was safe."
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's William Wilkerson takes a look at the game and details how the Rangers got from 5-2 deficit with Alexi Ogando on the mound to 7-6 win.
Andro has some factoids about the game and the Rangers up on the Star-Telegram Foul Territory blog.
Gerry Fraley takes a (free) look at how the Rangers are having to win without the Neftali Feliz we're all used to and are instead working with a Neftali Feliz who has been pretty horrible all season long. The Rangers don't appear to be looking to do anything with Feliz other than hope he snaps out of it.
Fraley also has an update from Ian Kinsler about getting ejected from the game yesterday.
Horvath's notebook on MLB.com includes stuff on Nelson Cruz beginning to heat up after coming off the disabled list, Brandon Webb excited to make a minor league rehab start, Borbon's rehab schedule, and YOSHIMANIA!!
Watkins discusses how Ron Washington gives his Ranger sluggers the green light to swing on 3-0 or 3-1 counts, something that worked out well for the Rangers on Sunday.
Ryan Jones takes a look at how the Rangers Top Ten Prospects did this previous week. I am glad to see Leonys Martin is now on the list.
Finally, C.J. Wilson bought the entire team a bunch of Mavericks shirts, writes William Wilkerson, after seeing some teammates walking around wearing Heat shirts. That's cool of Ceej to set those dudes straight. Go Mavs! But the best part is this quote from C.J.:
"You don't see a lot of 7-foot-tall German dudes being the MVP of the team. He is the exact opposite of the whole hype with LeBron [James] and those guys. "I don't like that whole situation. It just bums me out."
C.J. will never be a Miami Marlin!