The Rangers entered the top of the ninth trailing the Cardinals 1-0. They had all of two hits to their name, and they were about to face Jason Motte, who had retired 27 of the 28 batters he'd seen in the postseason. It was pretty easy - wrong, but easy - to go ahead and take the outcome for granted.
World Series Game 2: Rangers Rally, Score Two In Ninth To Take Lead
Well, the Rangers showed you! It took Ian Kinsler five pitches to increase the team's hit output by 50 percent, as he dropped a blooper into no-man's land in shallow left-center. Soon after that, Kinsler took off for second, and even though Yadier Molina is a fantastic defensive catcher who made a fantastic, perfect throw, Kinsler's jump was too good, and he was just barely safe.
So the Rangers had a runner in scoring position with nobody out. That's when Elvis Andrus drilled a single the other way. He hit the ball too hard to score Kinsler, and there were runners on the corners, but a wild throw by Jon Jay and a poor cutoff attempt by Albert Pujols allowed Andrus to advance to second. Spoiler: this was important.
Up came the ailing Josh Hamilton, and because Jason Motte isn't the Cardinals' official "closer", Tony La Russa had no problem replacing him with the left-handed Arthur Rhodes. It seemed like a good idea, but Rhodes hung a first-pitch slider that Hamilton hit deep enough for a game-tying sac fly. Andrus advanced to third.
Out came La Russa again, to replace Rhodes with the right-handed Lance Lynn. Lynn fell behind Michael Young 3-0 before fighting back, but on the sixth pitch, Lynn put a curve within Young's reach, and Young hit it to straightaway center - again deep enough for a sac fly, this one putting the Rangers in the lead.
So everything's flipped. Now it's 2-1 Texas going into the bottom of the ninth, and Neftali Feliz is on to close it out. Everything happened too quickly for me to be profound or insightful.
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