Major League Baseball

Hamilton rewards manager's faith

Published Oct. 20, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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Ron Washington’s pregame remarks included this improbable declaration: “I’d look for Hamilton to come up big tonight.”

Josh Hamilton, a nobly recovering drug addict, is the Rangers’ best story, and, when healthy, their best player. But at the most inopportune time, a groin injury has forced him to swing without the lower torso that generated so much of his power.

It was OK, he said before the Game 2: “I’ve hit home runs before just flicking at the ball.”

Perhaps. But not lately. This postseason has been a painful disappointment for Hamilton. While flicking — not the ideal stroke for power hitters — he is homerless in the postseason. After going 2 for 20 in last year’s World Series, he picked up where he left off, going 0 for 4 in the Game 1 loss. As Thursday’s game wore on, there was little reason to feel sanguine about either Hamilton’s prospects or his manager’s prediction.

Come up big? C’mon. The guy was in obvious pain. A checked swing — “that’s what really hurts,” he had said — had now become an occasion to wince. When it came to painkillers — a particularly sensitive question for someone with Hamilton’s history of substance abuse — he said “I plead the Fifth.”

In his first three at-bats Thursday, the left-handed hitter grounded out to third, flew out to left and, in the seventh, went down swinging on the third pitch he saw.

“The first couple felt like I was sticking with the plan, not trying to do too much, trying to barrel the ball up,” said Hamilton. “But my third at-bat, I kind of said — well, I can’t say that word. Let me think. I was way more aggressive my third at-bat and ended up striking out.”

The 2010 AL MVP was now 2 for 27 in World Series competition. The question was no longer whether Texas could compete without the bat of its best player. Rather, one had begun to wonder: How long would Washington be able to keep him in the lineup?

“I know my player,” the manager would say later. “Things are going around that Hamilton is dealing with some problems, and he is. But the nine guys I put out there on the field . . . those are the nine guys that got me here, and we’re going to deal with them through good times and bad times. If he tells me he can play, I’m putting him in the field. All I can say is, I know my players better than you guys.”

Well said. Still, not enough to have felt much confidence for Hamilton as he came to the plate in the ninth. For the second night in a row, he’d be facing the aging lefty Arthur Rhodes with a chance to tie a one-run game.

“We thought we had a chance to do something with Hamilton,” said Tony La Russa.

On Wednesday, Rhodes threw him five four-seam fastballs before getting him to fly out softly on a slider. On Thursday, Hamilton came to the plate looking slider. That’s what he got. That’s what he hit.

“Just reacted,” he said. “That’s a good thing sometimes, just reacting, instead of trying to make it happen.”

That’s not to say the ball achieved a particularly impressive trajectory as it came off his bat — certainly not by Josh Hamilton’s standards. Hitting — like keeping clean, I guess — isn’t an exact science.

So it wasn’t a perfect shot. In fact, you wonder where it would have landed if Hamilton had a healthy swing. But it was enough. The fly ball to right — hey, at least he managed to get around on it — scored Ian Kinsler to tie a game whose course had suddenly, and inexorably, changed.

As it happened, the Rangers played what La Russa correctly termed “a classic ninth inning.” There had been a bloop single by Kinsler, who was ballsy enough to steal second despite a beautiful throw by Yadier Molina. He went to third on a base hit by Elvis Andrus. Albert Pujols’ error on the relay allowed Andrus to reach second, and he eventually score on Michael Young’s sacrifice. There it was, the margin of victory: another night, another one-run game. The American League’s best hitting club was playing small-ball in the World Series.

A run saved was a run earned, as Kinsler and Andrus had demonstrated on a spectacular double play in the fifth. Then there were the runs you earned with steals and sacrifice flies.

Then again, why should that have been a surprise? Before the game, Ron Washington had spoken of his belief in that brand of baseball. Just as he had spoken of his belief in Josh Hamilton.

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