The Dallas Morning News headlined its story "Close isn't good enough: Rangers now at 51 title-less years and counting." The story includes the following passage:
A day after twice coming within one strike of champagne, a glittering trophy and a championship parade in Game 6, the Rangers went as dry as an overcooked Texas T-bone in Friday night's finale.
Pitchers Matt Harrison and C.J. Wilson fizzled rather than sizzled, and the St. Louis Cardinals won 6-2 in Game 7 to send the Rangers home as World Series losers for the second straight season.
Last year, this was a new experience. The first American League pennant was satisfying, even if the five-game loss to the San Francisco Giants was a disappointment to a franchise searching for success as the expansion Washington Senators through 1971 and the Rangers since the move.
This loss left wounds that will never be forgotten for the oldest Major League Baseball team without a Series title. "2011" will be remembered by Rangers fans, much like "1986" weighed on the memory of the Boston Red Sox until they finally ended their long championship drought in 2004.
Only once before in baseball history had a team come within an out of a Series title and not brought home a championship — those '86 Red Sox, infamous for Bill Buckner's error.
These Rangers will be remembered for a triple failure, for Neftali Feliz allowing David Freese's tying triple in the ninth inning of Game 6, for Scott Feldman giving up Lance Berkman's tying single in the 10th and for Mark Lowe allowing Freese's game-ending home run in the 11th.
Even the collapses come bigger in Texas.
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