Five years ago today.

It was five years ago today.

Talks between the Mariners and Yankees hit a snag, with Seattle making some sort of reference to the medicals on AA second baseman David Adams’s ankle that DeAndre Jordan would have approved of, and Texas swooped in and made Justin Smoak available once and for all, shipping the first baseman along with righthander Blake Beavan and Josh Lueke and AA second baseman Matt Lawson to Seattle for Cliff Lee and Mark Lowe.

Five years ago today.

So much Rangers history since.

Including an ALDS clincher that year — the Rangers’ first ever — at Tampa Bay, ending with Cliff marching toward Bengie as the final ball in play catapulted in the direction of Elvis’s glove.

And another ALDS clincher one year later, again at Tampa Bay, a game pitting Matt Harrison against Rays righthander Jeremy Hellickson. Adrian Beltre had three hits — all home runs — while Andrus, Josh Hamilton, and Mitch Moreland went a combined 0 for 10. The Rangers knocked Hellickson out after four innings, and won, 4-3.

Harrison and Hellickson, this time with Arizona, faced off again last night. Beltre had another three hits. Hellickson was again chased after just four frames. Andrus, Hamilton, and Moreland went 2 for 11, and the Rangers once again scratched out four runs, collecting nearly twice as many hits (11) as they had in the ALDS clincher in 2011 (6).

But this time, Hellickson’s team scored seven runs — every one of them with two outs — and sent Texas to its eighth straight home loss, one short of a franchise worst, set in 1990, and fifth straight loss overall, one short of its longest streak this season.

Slow clap, Matt Harrison. One more strike to nine-hole hitter (and the most morally upright Aggie mentioned in this report) Cliff Pennington in the second inning, and that’s a completely different game, and maybe we’re not talking about losing streaks at all this morning.

Slow clap, Matt. Awesome to see you back on the mound.

I wish we were celebrating the fifth anniversary of Cliff today by talking about a 2015 variant. About which top prospect the Rangers will ultimately relent on to get a game-changing deal done and boost the odds of taking this summer’s run deep into the fall. About, perhaps, one of Cliff’s current left-handed teammates.

I suppose we can’t rule out Texas and Philadelphia getting together on a Cole Hamels deal this month. The Rangers have to be on the Phillies’ short list, for various reasons, and trading for Hamels would feed the Yu Darvish window, making it different from the 2010 Cliff deal, which guaranteed only three months of service that happily turned into four.

But it’s a longshot, and this morning, I’m thinking more about three months of Yovani Gallardo that could turn into four, with hopes that there’s a team other than Texas out there huddling up today, perhaps preparing to sit on Gallardo’s start against San Diego this Sunday afternoon — when we will hopefully no longer be discussing home losing streaks — or even swooping in before then. Texas acquired Cliff five years ago on his day to start, and the next day he was pitching in a Rangers uniform.

A home loss, incidentally.

Should the Rangers opt to move Gallardo, they will get more for him than the Sardinas-Knebel-Diplan package they gave up to get him from Milwaukee six months ago. And more than the value of the supplemental first-round pick they’d receive if he were to finish the season here, turn down a one-year qualifying offer, and leave this winter — because there’s no reason for Texas to move him for less value than that, and teams understand that.

Even if the Rangers trade Gallardo, they can always resign him in the winter if that’s part of the bigger plan (though I sort of doubt it), and there would be no draft pick forfeiture since he will have played less than a full season with the team he’s leaving. Texas isn’t out of the race, but it seems reasonable to assume that an honest assessment of the team and the standings could point to a decision to sell this month, starting with Gallardo.

The Rangers will get more for Gallardo than they gave the Brewers.

And they will get more for him than they gave the Mariners for Cliff.

My short-term hope is for Wandy, Colby, and Yo to help Texas snap a couple ugly streaks and win a series against San Diego at home, with the offense getting the chance to face three righthanders.

As far as the bigger picture is concerned, I’m hoping there’s a team out there thinking about swooping.