Sunday morning Rangers things

So it all comes down to this.  A Rangers win guarantees that there is more baseball beyond today for the Rangers.  A Rangers win and a Rays loss and the Rangers make the playoffs as the Wild Card.

For the first time in franchise history, whether or not the team makes the playoffs has come down to the final game of the season.

Jeff Wilson's game story discusses the Rangers putting themselves in position for Game 162 to mean something by winning their last six games.

T.R. Sullivan's game story has quotes from Elvis Andrus, A.J. Pierzynski and Alex Rios about pulling out the win yesterday with an early start and a rain storm at the end of the game, putting Texas in a position to play more baseball with a win today.

Anthony Andro says in his game story that, with the Rays losing the previous two days, the Rangers now are in a situation where they have their fate in their own hands.

Todd Wills has his Rapid Reaction at the ESPN Dallas blog.

Gil Lebreton has a column on the Rangers' finishing kick and Joe Nathan coming up big once again yesterday.

Master Tesfatsion has a story about the Rangers playing baseball in the rain.

Tim Cowlishaw has a column about the Rangers storming back with six straight wins to put themselves in position to make the playoffs.

If the Rangers make it to a Game 163 (or the playoffs), Nelson Cruz will be eligible to return, and his teammates want him back.

Evan Grant writes that, while Nelson Cruz is eligible to return after today, Alex Rios has replaced him capably.  Of course, the problem for the Rangers is that they needed Rios to replace David Murphy, rather than Cruz, but in any case, Rios is here and has been fine....

Jeff Wilson has a story about the rubbed-up-baseballs controversy, saying the Rangers did not have any problems with the ball on Friday, unlike C.J. Wilson.

Richard Durrett writes that Yu Darvish can silence his critics with a great game today.  Darvish is fourth in the American League in ERA, so the fact he has as many critics as he does is kind of baffling to me, but there you go...

The S-T's notes talk about Jason Frasor and Joe Nathan reaching out to former teammates on the Jays and Twins, respectively, to encourage them to win this weekend, Yu Darvish saying he doesn't feel pressure, and Tanner Scheppers leading the team's pitchers in appearances.

Sullivan's notes hit on the Ranger pitchers not having issues with slippery baseballs on Friday, Scheppers' workload, and Nathan telling Ron Gardenhire to beat the Indians.

And finally, Tom Grieve was on the Ticket on Friday, and went all "back in my day" on everyone, saying that players need to play winter ball, dismissed the possibility that players need to rest in the offseason, and said, "I think in a lot of cases, the player misses the opportunity to become a better player, misses the opportunity to make a team in spring training, and does themselves a disservice because they’re too lazy to go.”