Rangers Moments: No. 5

As part of a season-ending series, we'll take a look at the 13 most memorable moments from the 2011 Texas Rangers season.

No. 5

When: Oct. 20

What: The Texas Rangers weren't supposed to lose to Jaime Garcia. Chris Carpenter? Yeah, you can handle that. But the Rangers were supposed to have the advantage with the rest of the pitching matchups. But in Game 2 of the World Series, Garcia's soft-tossing junk stymied the Rangers bats, going seven innings of shutout ball while allowing just three hits. Things were looking bleak for the Rangers as an 0-2 series hole would've been devastating. Then, the unthinkable happened. A blown save in the World Series doesn't happen, but it did on this night. Jason Motte came into the ninth inning with a 1-0 lead before the top of the Rangers order struck like lightning. Ian Kinsler led off the inning with a bloop single then pulled his best Dave Roberts impression with what would've been the biggest stolen base in World Series history had the Rangers went on to win the World Series. Kinsler barely beat Yadier Molina's throw to second to get out of the double play possibility and put the tying run in scoring position. Elvis Andrus then singled to center but Kinsler stopped at third base. Andrus, however, didn't stop at first when John Jay's throw sailed a bit and went under the glove of Albert Pujols, who was supposed to cut the throw off, allowing Andrus to take second on the throw and put runners on second and third with no outs and Josh Hamilton coming. Hamilton sac flied, scoring Kinsler and moving Andrus to third. Then Michael Young followed suit with another sac fly to score Andrus and give the Rangers the lead, marking the first time in Series history that the tying and go-ahead runs were both scored on sacrifice flies in the ninth inning. The Series was tied at 1-1 instead of an 0-2 Rangers hole, and all because of some fleet baserunning and some clutch hitting, albeit sac flies, by two guys who had struggled mightily at the plate.

Up next: Bullpen-gate leads to Rangers 3-2 advantage

Previous moments: No. 13, No. 12, No. 11, No. 10, No. 9, No. 8, No. 7, No. 6

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