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And The Young Shall Lead Them: First Walk-Off Homer for Michael Young Leads Rangers to 6-5 Win Over Royals

• D-tails – Boxscore: Rangers 6, Royals 5; MLB standings; Rangers statistics; Hamilton confident he’ll break slump; The Depot live game blog;

ARLINGTON - Michael Young hit the first walk-off home run of his nine-year career Sunday, sprinted round the bases with a little fist pump and then received the helmet-smacking home plate mugging that passes as a celebration from the entire Rangers roster.

Dramatic win? You bet.

Dramatics are one thing. Significance is another. And the 6-5 victory over Kansas City that left 27,065 fans happily smacking palms with one another as they left Rangers Ballpark in Arlington might also be significant.

It could be significant if it serves as a springboard to recovery from an April that was starting to look suspiciously like the last two. Those are remembered as the beginnings of lost seasons.

Perhaps that’s why Young started recounting all the other areas that contributed to the win rather than simply focusing on his own exciting moment.

“It was a good team win,” Young said. “The bullpen did a great job. We played great defense. And we really chipped away late at the back end of a really good bullpen. We definitely wanted to win this game. It was good to have a good feeling feeling in the clubhouse, to have some positive energy. We didn’t want to take the last few games on the road.”

The win ended the Rangers homestand with a subpar 2-4 record. It ended what appeared to be a favorable opening two weeks of the season with a sub-par 5-7 record.

For the Rangers, though, the concern wasn’t over what it ended, but the optimism over what it might start. Namely: It might gave the team a re-boot to the season before April gets away from them.

In 2007, the Rangers finished April 10-15 and sunk to 19 games below .500 (23-42) before any kind of rally. Last year, a 7-16 start nearly led to the firing of manager Ron Washington.

A third straight awful April might well lead to Washington’s dismissal and send the Rangers in a wholly different direction. The Rangers appeared headed in that direction after losing seven of eight games following a season-opening sweep of Cleveland.

On Friday, the Rangers fell down 9-0 to Kansas City only to load the bases with two outs in the seventh inning. In a curious move, Washington elected to pinch-hit for Young, later explaining he had promised Omar Vizquel an at-bat after the club fell down by nine runs and didn’t want to back out on the promise.

On Saturday, the Rangers seemed lifeless against emerging ace Zack Greinke. While Greinke has been outstanding this season, he did give the Rangers two early opportunities to score, but the club couldn’t get runners home from third with less than two outs in the second and third innings.

And then Sunday, after the Rangers took a lead in the bottom of the first, RHP Vicente Padlla lost in the second. The Rangers rallied for a lead in the second; Padilla allowed Kansas City to tie it in the third.

“No one in our clubhouse has talked about April being a nasty thing,” Young said. “But it’s a fair question. There is no feeling about getting buried or anything like that. We’re constantly talking about getting better and what adjustments need to be made.”

The Rangers appeared to make some of those adjustments late in Sunday’s game. The bullpen, which has been such a sore spot in the first two weeks of the season, provided four scoreless innings from Jason Jennings, C.J. Wilson and Frank Francisco. That trio might be the right recipe for finishing out close games.

After falling down 5-3, the offense did rally against Royals relievers. Andruw Jones doubled to start the eighth. That’s the point where the two rallies died the night before, but on Sunday, the Rangers got fortunate when first baseman Billy Butler bobbled Hank Blalock’s grounder. The Rangers got one run back on Nelson Cruz’s grounder to the right side, which is something the Rangers didn’t accomplish in the same situation Saturday. With two outs, pinch hitter Chris Davis singled off the glove of second baseman Alberto Callaspo and Blalock rushed home from second. He scored ahead of a throw that took catcher John Buck too far to the first base side to block home plate.

After Franicso retired Royals in order, Young hit the second pitch of the inning from Kyle Farnsworth into the seats.

It ended the game. The Rangers hope it gives them a fresh start.