Young Again: Another Ninth-Inning Homer From Michael Young Leads Rangers To 5-4 Win Over Baltimore

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BALTIMORE - The Rangers are adopting an NBA approach to baseball. All you’ve got to do is show up for the last two minutes, er, innings.

That’s when the game changes. Especially if Michael Young has anything to say about it.

In what is becoming a nightly occurrence, Young turned a game around Friday with a ninth-inning home run. This one came with a man on base and two outs and provided the margin in a 5-4 win over Baltimore. This homer followed the one he hit Wednesday in Toronto to send a game to extra innings. And that one followed the one he hit Sunday in Arlington for a walkoff win over Kansas City.

“It’s the weirdest thing,” said LF Marlon Byrd. “It’s like we expect him to do stuff like that. He comes up and the game is on the line and we are sitting in the dugout going, ‘OK, he’s going to do it again.’ And when it happens, we get excited, but we’re not surprised.”

Said Young: “I just feel locked in on those at-bats. I think I’m getting good results because I’m not thinking about results. I’m thinking about getting a good pitch to hit and hitting it. I’m trying not to get too cute.”

On Friday, though, Young had company. The Rangers probably don’t win the game without a handful of other late-inning contributions from guys who represent the team’s foundation.

Young doesn’t get to drive that 90 mph fastball that drifted over the heart of the plate over the wall in right center if 2B Ian Kinsler doesn’t fight through an eight-pitch at-bat against Baltimore closer George Sherrill to line a single to left field.

Young’s homer might not mean as much if SS Elvis Andrus hadn’t leaped and extended his body fully horizontally to stop and smother Lou Montanez’s line-drive single. If the ball gets through or even squirts away from Andrus, Baltimore’s Gregg Zaun scores an extra run in the eighth. Instead, Zaun had to stop at third – actually he used coach Juan Samuel’s body to stop himself – and was eventually stranded there.

Young’s homer potentially gets lost in the bottom of the ninth if Byrd doesn’t do an NFL scouting-combine sprint from left center, where he was shading left-handed hitting Nick Markakis, to catch his foul fly as he crashed into the wall. He also had to fight through a moving pick set by a fan jumping out of the stands in front of him as the ball was coming down. Markakis, Baltimore’s top offensive threat, leads all active players in batting average in “close and late” situations (.336).

And Young’s homer may be a forgotten moment of hope if closer Frank Francisco doesn’t shut the door. But the only thing about the Rangers more automatic than Young delivering a ninth-inning homer matter may be Francisco. He needed just six pitches to retire the heart of the Baltimore order to earn his third save of the season. Francisco has not allowed an earned run since taking over as the club’s closer late last August. That stretch includes a 2-0 record, eight saves and 19 innings of work.

“We just hung in there all game,” manager Ron Washington said. “We hung together in the dugout and I just had a feeling good things would happen.”

Washington’s feelings provided another key twist to the game. He went completely against percentages to allow left-handed hitting 1B Chris Davis to face the left-handed Sherrill with two outs and the bases loaded. Sherrill entered the game holding lefties to a .111 batting average, while right-handed hitters batted .412 against him.

It was virtually the same situation the Rangers faced a night earlier in Toronto. On that occasion, Washington pulled the struggling Davis for right-handed Andruw Jones. The Blue Jays countered by bringing in a right-hander who struck Jones out.

On Friday, the manager elected to stay with Davis even if there was no question that the left-handed Sherrill would be staying in the game. Davis quickly got behind 0-and-2 with bad swings on breaking balls. He eventually struck out to end the inning.

The non-move, Washington later explained, was designed specifically to try and restore Davis’ confidence. The manager’s reasoning: to pinch hit for him twice in a row, while perhaps the technically correct move, might do long-term damage to his confidence.

“I told him I was going to let him hit,” said Washington, who called Davis back to the dugout for a brief talk before he went to the plate.” He is going to be somebody we are going to count on to produce for a long time. I felt it was best to give him a shot, to show him confidence.”

It certainly seemed a strange way to instill confidence at the moment, but in the ninth, Kinsler’s at-bat, Young’s homer, Byrd’s catch and Francisco’s efficiency changed everything.

“Mike is being the team leader big-time,” Washington said. “He’s becoming a superstar. When this team needs something, he gets it done. I wish I could kiss him.”

Now, that might have made for a real surprising ending.