Payback.

We were down to our final out, blanked for eight and two-thirds with baseball's best 2007 closer on the mound, having just registered a three-pitch strikeout and a comebacker for out number two. The way this season has gone, you knew the odds. If you even gave so much thought as to what the odds might have been.

Then Brad Wilkerson stepped to the plate. And then Ramon Vazquez. And Gerald Laird and Kenny Lofton and Marlon Byrd.

Neither Brad nor Ramon nor Kenny nor Marlon was around in 2004. Gerald was but it was his disjointed rookie season, half of which was erased by a broken thumb.

But Michael Young was around for 89-73 that year, and so was Francisco Cordero, around for a season that gave us lots of moments like last night's.

Whether Brad and Ramon and Kenny and Marlon will be around the next time this team wins, it's hard to say.

But Michael will be.

And I will be.

And games like that one give us a reminder of why we care about this so much, how it felt when we were repaid with moments that matter, and how it's going to feel for those of us hanging in there for the next time this team strings together a season of moments like that.

Not for the bandwagoners who will call themselves huge Rangers fans the next time this team is playing meaningful September games. For you and me.

It, unquestionably, will rock.


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