By JD Texican

At the beginning of the week, I said this was a huge week for the Rangers.  Would they make a trade? How would they do against the Angels?  Would they lose a top prospect if they did trade for a pitcher?   Well, it’s safe to say the Rangers had a roller coaster week, and be honest Rangers fans, some of you were genuinely scared.  And I’m sure some Rangers fans are still worried about this team. But before we go into what happened on the field, let’s talk about what happened off. 

Going into the trade deadline, many fans, “experts” and media all felt the Rangers needed a starting pitcher.  The Rangers were probably on the fence about whether they needed a pitcher, thinking they could get it done with their current rotation.  Then Roy Oswalt got rocked by the Angels, and Neftali Feliz had Tommy John surgery and is now out for the year.  The Rangers went from on the fence, to big time shoppers in the trade market.  Even with the Rangers needing a pitcher, they stuck to their guns and said they would not give up either of their top 2 prospects, Mike Olt and Jurickson Profar.  We here at Texas Sports Junkie even did a twitter debate, asking if Rangers fans would be ok with dealing Olt for Cliff Lee perhaps.  Even Fox Sports Emily Jones chimed in, with the vote about 50\50.  In the end, the Rangers showed once again that they are one of the top front offices in all of sports, landing Ryan Dempster and his 2.25 ERA.  The best part, the Rangers only had to give up 2 single A prospects and held on to Profar and Olt.  As for Mike Olt, he got called up the very next day, and will now be a full time Ranger. 

As for on the field, things weren’t looking good.  The Angels took the first two games of the series, and game 3 didn’t look much better for the Rangers.  Texas fell behind 6-0 after 3 innings, and used the rest of the game to fight back.  Ian Kinsler hit a homer in the 9^th to tie the game up, and it felt like maybe the Rangers were back.  Not just back in the game, not just back in the series, but the mojo of the Rangers might really be back.  Then the 10^th inning came, and all star reliever Joe Nathan gave up home runs to Chris Iannetta and the now hated Albert Pujols.  It seemed like the Angels just stepped on the Rangers throats, and were ready to take their 3^rd straight game against the Rangers.  The game and the AL west seemed to be slipping from the Rangers.  Texas was down 3 in extra innings, and in baseball that usually means the game is over.  But the Rangers did what they hadn’t done in a long time, they dug deep, and got their bats going.  First, Cruz hits a solo shot to cut into the lead, then Young, Murphy, Napoli and Moreland got on base just in time for Elvis Andrus to get the walk off hit.  The Rangers finally answered the bell, got off the floor, and hit the Angels back.  Then came game 4 of the series, with new players Ryan Dempster , Geovany Soto, and Mike Olt playing there was a new buzz in the stadium.  And of course because of the night before the Rangers felt they had their mojo back.  The Angels then proceeded to rock Dempster, scoring 9 runs.  But the Rangers did it again, every time the Angels seemed to finally score enough to win, the Rangers scored right with them.  They continued to answer the bell, until the Angels just couldn’t keep up. 

The Rangers still have issues, they need to get their pitchers back on track, their bats need to stay hot, and of course theirs that issue with Hamiltion.  But after this week, one thing is certain:  The Rangers are ready to fight, on and off the field, and if you knock them down, they’re ready to get up and answer the bell.