ARLINGTON, Texas — It was one of the worst single-game collapses by any team in any sport.
The Rangers flushed Game 1 of the AL Championship Series last night, and with that, may have also flushed the ALCS.
Texas dominated the first six innings, taking a 5-0 lead against the Yankees that stood at 5-1 through seven innings. But the Rangers blew it all with an atrocious and crushing eighth inning, allowing five runs en route to a heartbreaking 6-5 defeat.
“We should have won that game,” said Darren Oliver, one of the culprits from the Rangers’ combustible bullpen.
The Rangers still have six games to recover, so the meltdown may not reach the level of the Red Sox blowing a 5-2 lead in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS to the Yankees or the Cubs’ collapse — thanks in part to Steve Bartman — in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS with the Marlins.
Nevertheless, the Rangers would have had a chance to grab a 2-0 lead going into Cliff Lee’s Game 3 start.
RAW AUDIO: RANGERS’ MANAGER ON TEXAS’ STRUGGLES
Before Game 1, Texas manager Ron Washington said he felt good about his bullpen if the starter could go seven innings — which C.J. Wilson then did.
“Once we get to the eighth and ninth inning, I think I have the matchups, no matter what they are, to get it to relief at the end,” Washington said.
Wilson dominated for six shutout innings, before Robinson Cano opened the seventh with a home run to cut the lead to four runs. Then in the eighth, Wilson fell apart — as did everyone who relieved him.
Brett Gardner opened the inning with an infield single, and Derek Jeter doubled him home to make it 5-2. Washington brought in Oliver, who walked Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira to load the bases.
Washington summoned righty Darren O’Day to face Alex Rodriguez. One pitch later, Rodriguez’s two-run single made it 5-4. Lefty Clay Rapada, just added to the ALCS roster yesterday, entered and served up Cano’s game-tying RBI single.
Finally, lefty Derek Holland came on to face Marcus Thames, whose RBI single made it 6-5, Yankees.
“I don’t think if we tried to do that again the next time out that it would happen,” Oliver said. “But it did.”
Wilson dismissed the idea that this was different from any other loss.
“It’s a seven-game series. It’s not a one-game series,” he said. “We’re playing [today]. . . . And we’re going to go out there and try to beat them.”