Following their defeat in the regular-season finale, the Texas Rangers were in a bad place. Both a first-round playoff bye and an American League West championship had slipped through their fingers. The prize was a cross-country flight versus a 99-win club.

It all seemed hopeless.

“We were hoping to win that game, win the division, and ended up tying,” Bochy remarked following his team’s series-clinching 7-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday. “You couldn’t have had a tougher loss that last game.”

“We had to come to Tampa because of the team’s record, of course. The fact that we had to fly directly over Dallas might have been disastrous for the team.

St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; October 3, 2023; As the Texas Rangers take on the Tampa Bay Rays in game one of their Wildcard series at Tropicana Field in 2023, manager Bruce Bochy (15) watches from the stands.

Rather, the Rangers have not been this good in twelve years. Texas takes against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday in the first game of the best-of-five AL Division Series. Texas had not won a postseason series since 2011. The first pitch is scheduled to air on FS1 at 12:03 p.m.

Following Sunday’s 1-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners, nothing unusual transpired. Despite injuries, losing runs, and slumps, the Rangers have shown resilience this season.

These Rangers work in that capacity. It will be what makes them unique in 2023.

Bochy stated, “It’s all about bouncing back.” “Overcoming the difficult moments. You anticipate experiencing them. As I’ve mentioned before, the way you manage things matters, and these players have handled things so well that they were able to get past those difficult defeats and return with a strong ballgame.

Texas played two excellent games in St. Petersburg, particularly in terms of pitching. In Tuesday’s 4-0 shutout victory in Game 1, Jordan Montgomery set the tone, and Nathan Eovaldi helped slam the door the following afternoon.

The Rays’ hopes of a comeback were dashed on Wednesday by the bats, who played their part. Josh Jung collected three extra-base hits, and Adolis García and Evan Carter each blasted home runs.

The Rangers ended up back in Florida.

“We knew we had to do this in order to beat a team like Tampa,” Bochy remarked. “They reset, refocused, and just put together two of the best games back to back that we probably have had all year when you look at the pitching, the offense, the defense, and everything else.”

Bochy, who has been a calm and steady presence for the Rangers during his first season in Texas, deserves a lot of the credit for the team’s ability to bounce back.

Eovaldi remarked, “He’s been able to prepare us for these big moments, and we know what we’re capable of.” “All we have to do is go out there and carry out our plan.”

Bochy is equally eager to give the players credit for enduring a season that included numerous highs and lows that could have destroyed another team.

“I believe we were written off earlier in the season or in late August when we were really struggling, and we were mostly in the lead,” Bochy stated. “And we’re in third place the next thing you know.” However, they did a fantastic job of recovering and getting to this point.