ARLINGTON – No one in the Rangers clubhouse seemed more stunned than Michael Young Friday night. But he won't blame the 5-1 wild-card loss to the Baltimore Orioles or the second place finish in the division on running out of gas.
"We've been in this situation before," Young said in front of his locker. "We knew what it took. I just think we got away from our style of play."
How so?
"Well we had the personnel in here to get it done," Young responded. "It felt like the will was there, the effort level was there but it was almost like the harder we tried the more we couldn't get into the rhythm of the game. We couldn't get it flowing like we normally do. Obviously, that's very disappointing. This is the time of the year where we really feel like we play our best ball. We've done it for the last couple of years and we weren't able to do it this season."
Asked if he was surprised by the abrupt end to the season, Young responded, "Yeah, very surprised."
"It's a very disappointing finish," he added. "We felt like the team we had with the guys we have, we could make another run at it. But it doesn't really come down to tonight's game. It comes down to the last week and a half or so where we felt like we had an opportunity to put our best foot forward and set ourselves up for a strong run. But we didn't get it done."
