Firing Blanks.

November 28, 2014: Oakland trades third baseman Josh Donaldson to Toronto for third baseman Brett Lawrie, pitchers Kendall Graveman and Sean Nolin, and minor league shortstop Franklin Barreto.

As a Rangers fan, that deal made me very, very happy.

But it didn’t stop there, because to make room for the extra two players on the 40-man roster, the A’s designated two players for assignment: former Rangers reliever Josh Lindblom and longtime favorite of mine Kyle Blanks.

And it didn’t stop there, either, because on December 15, the Rangers signed Blanks to a non-roster deal.

And though he homered Friday night against his former A’s teammates, his big Rangers breakout came tonight, again against the club who dumped him in conjunction with what was already a stupid trade, as he went RBI double/single/homer/two-run single/strikeout in an 8-7, walkoff win that doesn’t happen without him and that felt as desperately needed as an early May win can possibly be.

In the grand scheme, this was Shin-Soo Choo’s night, and big credit too to Rougned Odor (and to Robinson Chirinos for narrowly eluding Odor’s deflected shot), but man, I love Kyle Blanks.

And I love that he did this to the team that gave up on him a few months ago.

Small victories, I guess.

Now, for the first time this season:

Win the damn series.