Tuesday night's game in Oakland should've been one of those galvanizing moments of a season for the Rangers.
Of course, it was going to pale in comparison to the galvanization that took place a couple of days earlier back in Arlington, but it should've been a pretty big night in The Bay.
With all hope basically lost after a subpar effort from their ace, the Rangers had two outs in the ninth against a formidable closer in the A's Ryan Madson before Rougned Odor singled to bring up Ian Desmond. Of course, Desmond gave the Rangers a lead with one stroke of the bat, crushing a two-run bomb with two strikes and two outs on him to give way to Shawn Tolleson.
Admit it, as soon as you found out Tolleson was coming in to close the game in the ninth, you knew things weren't going to end well for Texas. It's crazy to say, seeing as how Tolleson was damn near perfect in 2015 and entered Tuesday's game leading the league with 11 saves. But, he also had three blown saves and an ERA that had "come down" to just above 7.00.
Of course, Tolleson quickly had runners on second and third with no outs with a one-run lead, and doom seemed pending. Then, he got two quick, easy pop-ups and appeared to be on his way to working his way out of the worst of all jams.
But, not so fast.
#TollyTime ended with a game-winning grand slam by Khris Davis, and with it came what has to be the end of the Tolleson era in the ninth inning.
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The job should be Sam Dyson's if a save situation presents itself on Wednesday, and Matt Bush should also be in the fold despite the fact he has just three MLB appearances under his belt. Fact is, they've all been dominant.
It could likely be a result of Tolleson being ridden hard the last two years, but regardless of the reason, the Allen native and former Baylor great has clearly lost his mojo. And now, it's time for something new.
