ARLINGTON, Texas — The Rangers’ path back to the World Series is as wide open as the Texas plains.
Not only did yesterday’s rainout at The Ballpark in Arlington reset the Rangers dynamic bullpen, but the Tigers will be without slugger Magglio Ordonez, who is done for the postseason with a fractured right ankle.
Ordonez suffered the injury during batting practice before the Rangers’ 3-2 win in Game 1 of the ALCS.
The Tigers are now without their two right-handed hitting corner outfielders. Delmon Young was scratched at the start of the series with an oblique strain.
All this against a team loaded with lefty starters. The Tigers, who had to battle for every run against the Yankees, are a desperate ballclub now. They are getting to see what life was like for the Yankees, who got nothing from their right-handed slugger Alex Rodriguez, who batted .111 against the Tigers in the ALDS.
The Tigers will likely start the light-hitting outfield of Ryan Rayburn, Austin Jackson and Don Kelly today. Don’t feel sorry for Tigers skipper Jim Leyland, though.
“We’re a real resilient team,” Leyland said yesterday after Game 2 was postponed. “Do I like this? Obviously, no. But we’re a tough team. We’ll figure something out, and we’ll get through this. We’re not going to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves. I can guarantee you that.”
The Tigers could be down 2-0 in the series before they play their first home game tomorrow at Comerica Park.
What could go wrong, has gone wrong for the Tigers but Leyland said he sees this as a great opportunity.
“We’re playing the Texas Rangers for the [AL] championship, I love it,” Leyland said. “We had to beat the New York Yankees just for the right to play the defending champions.”
Young hit three home runs against the Yankees. Ordonez batted .455 against them. The Tigers are falling apart a few days too late to help the Yankees.
This was the same ankle that Ordonez fractured in 2010. It bothered him early in the year, but he was feeling much better recently.
During batting practice on Saturday, however, he felt pain in the ankle. He tried to play through the injury but had trouble getting to fly balls and had to leave the game in the fifth.
This has been one strange series. It hasn’t rained here in five months but it rained the last two days. The rain has been following the Tigers throughout the postseason, and now the black cloud of injury hovers above them.
“We’re in the American League Championship Series,” Rayburn said. “I don’t know how sorry we can actually feel.”
Ron Washington said the rainout allows him to bring in Alexi Ogando out of the bullpen in the second game, too. Ogando is Washington’s ace in the pen. He has appeared in four postseason games this year and the Rangers have won all four. His ERA is 0.00.
Washington said Ogando would not have been available last night. Ogando is backed by closer Neftali Feliz, two power arms.
“They have a great bullpen,” Rayburn admitted.
The Rangers had never won a one-run game in the post-season before this October. They have three straight one-run wins. That can be tough on the heart.
“I don’t think you can do anything about what your ticker is doing,” Washington said. “You just hope it continues to tick.”
Leyland said Game 1 loser Justin (Rainman) Verlander, who has had both of his postseason starts cut short by rain, will start Game 5. If the Rangers stay hot, there might not be a Game 5. The Tigers will go with Max Scherzer this afternoon against lefty Derek Holland.
There could be four games in four days. Nolan Ryan has re-built the Rangers bullpen to be ready for just such a task.
“I’m not sure how baseball in general views our bullpen,” Ryan said. “I think they view it differently now than they probably did earlier in the year.”
Yes, they do. The Rangers’ second straight World Series is in plain sight.
