The champagne carts are in Toronto as the Blue Jays are on the brink of a sweep in their ALDS against the Texas Rangers.
Needless to say, Sunday’s Game 3 is even more crucial for Texas, which is trying to keep its playoff hopes alive.
Here is what the Rangers columnists are saying ahead of the pivotal game.
Dallas Morning News — Rangers face daunting mountain to climb, achieving something that hasn’t been done since … last year, to them
The Rangers face a daunting, but doable, challenge as they head into the Rogers Centre thunderdome facing elimination in the AL Division Series after losing the first two games at home.
Teams have come back from this kind of deficit before.
Most recently: Toronto.
Against the Rangers. Last year.
“What a different scenario sitting here this time than last year,” manager Jeff Banister said Saturday. “Maybe I should call [Toronto manager] John [Gibbons] and ask him how he felt. The roles are reversed. I know he believed in his club. I believe in ours.”
Fort Worth Star Telegram — Odor just another struggling Ranger as Toronto to ‘welcome’ him
According to eyewitnesses, Public Enemy No. 1 passed quietly through the Texas Rangers’ clubhouse Saturday, with nary an eye — nor a camera — focused in his direction.
Neither the Toronto police chief nor a Maple Leaf enforcer with a hockey stick was there to greet Rougned Odor.
Instead, the Rangers second baseman dressed without fanfare and jogged out to the field for batting practice.
In May he was christened in the Toronto papers as “Public Enemy No. 1” for rocking the jaw of Jose Bautista. As recently as four days ago, he was the lightning rod in any analysis about the Blue Jays-Rangers rematch.
Fort Worth Star Telegram — Rangers-Blue Jays doesn’t need any fabricated drama
The U.S.A. chants from Rangers fans have cropped up against the Blue Jays from time to time, especially after Rougned Odor and Jose Bautista went at it on May 15.
I find the U.S.A. chants humorous, but perhaps I’m giving Rangers fans too much credit for being ironic. In May, it derived from the fact that the Rangers were playing a team from Canada, so it was natural, despite the fact that the two players at the center of the scuffle are from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
