Shake it off.

It was a game that felt lost for so much of it, even though at no time during the daytime contest (so shifted because of a Taylor Swift concert (?!!)) did Seattle have a lead.

It felt that way because of all those outs on the bases. Because of a coughed up opportunity for a shutdown inning in the fourth, marked by a couple crazy cheap base hits. Because of a couple sloppy errors. Because of a series of replay results that — after last night’s mess — felt like a never-ending pile-on with a couple gut punches mixed in.

But Texas shook all of it off (I promise: I had to look up Taylor Swift song titles. Really. I promise.) and won the game, drawing to within 4.5 games of the division lead, the closest the club has been in six weeks, and just three back in the Wild Card chase.

Man, that was a tense, often frustrating baseball game, but that made the finish exponentially more awesome.

As the Rangers and Mariners went to the 11th, after 18 of the game’s 20 half-innings had gone scoreless (each club scored three times in the fourth), I tweeted: “Two-run inning, right here.”

I was never so happy to be so incredibly wrong.

Four Mariners relievers had put zeroes up in the game — including rookies David Rollins and Mayckol Guaipe, who came into the day with ERA’s of 9.28 and 9.95 — when fellow rookie Rob Rasmussen, who has been traded five times in three years (once for Carlos Lee and once for Michael Young and once for Mark Lowe), entered and surrendered single-single-single-single-single-double before getting pulled, after which former Ranger draftee and later two-time Ranger camper Joe Beimel was greeted by single-lineout-homer before retiring two more to end the carnage.

Meanwhile, three Rangers relievers put up zeroes of their own: Sam Dyson going walk, groundout, groundout, groundout; Jake Diekman facing the Kyle Seager-Nelson Cruz-Robinson Cano gauntlet and going groundout, strikeout, E-4, flyout, and then striking out the side on 12 pitches in the 9th; and Shawn Tolleson, surviving what seemed sure to be a fatal Ryan Strausborger error to lead off the 10th by striking out Mike Zunino and Seager, intentionally walking Cruz and Cano (I liked the gutsiness of the moves — making Jesus Montero beat you rather than Cruz or Cano, and ensuring that Cano wouldn’t hit in the 11th if you got out of the 10th), and freezing Montero for strike three to end that frame.

After the super-lengthy top of the 11th, Jeff Banister sent Tolleson back out to close things out — a surprising decision given his 26-pitch 10th (19 if you discount the intentional wide ones), the eight-run lead, and the opportunity to get Luke Jackson out there for his debut under little pressure — and it took Tolleson another 22 pitches to finish. He wasn’t going to pitch Sunday afternoon regardless.

Or Monday, since Texas doesn’t play.

It was a career-high pitch count for Tolleson, but I trust he’ll shake that off, too.

I thought Jon Daniels had a great game today. Aside from the solid start out of Martin Perez, scouted and signed and developed just as the organization was renewing its presence internationally, the bullpen allowed one hit (the game’s penultimate batter) while punching out nine of 21 batters faced over five scoreless innings.

Those relievers: Dyson (acquired last week for Tomas Telis and Cody Ege), Diekman (a trade tack-on by the seller, evoking memories of Daniels’s Cruz acquisition in 2006), and Tolleson (a waiver claim).

Rule 5 pick Delino DeShields had three hits and drove in two runs.

The former 16th-round pick Strausborger singled and drew two walks.

Mitch Moreland, whom Daniels has refused repeatedly to sell low on, improved his pinch-hitting line to 5 for 7 and added another hit in the 11th. He sits at .294/.346/.508 for the season.

Josh Hamilton, whom the Angels are paying tens of millions to be a Ranger, singled twice and drove in two runs.

Prince Fielder raised his season line to .324/.390/.501 with a homer and double, and he owns a share of the big league lead in multi-hit games with Ian Kinsler, the player he was traded for.

Rougned Odor, who assumed second base duties in Kinsler’s absence, improved to .352/.385/.588 (180 plate appearances) since returning from his early May demotion to AAA with a three-hit effort today.

And journeyman Chris Gimenez, who has changed teams via minor league free agency or waivers a thousand times, doubled twice to raise his Rangers line to .375/.412/.750, which in tandem with Bobby Wilson’s .455/.455/.636 should be viewed through the seriously-small-sample-size filter but which should nonetheless make you wonder what happens when Carlos Corporan is ready to return. (Robinson Chirinos is in no danger.)

Gimenez and Wilson have come up big over and over in this stretch of time when the Rangers’ two catchers have been down. Credit to the Rangers’ scouting folks and to Daniels.

And though Banister will draw questions about his use of Tolleson today, I count his arrival as another huge move for Daniels. He entrusted his roster to Ron Washington after nobody had given him that chance in 15 years of coaching. That worked. He then entrusted the club to Banister, who had 22 years of coaching experience without a big league managerial opportunity.

This is working.

I could not feel any better about the direction of this team, on the field or in the front office.

There’s probably another Taylor Swift song title (is there one called “Win the Damn Series”?) that I could shoehorn in to finish this one, but I’m not going to find out because I’m not going to Google “Taylor Swift” again.

Ever.