BALTIMORE -- Andrew Heaney was handed the ball for a start with the Rangers’ season on the line last Saturday in Seattle. He delivered, throwing 4 1/3 shutout innings in the postseason-clinching win against the Mariners. 

“[Heck] yeah, let's go,” he responded when pitching coach Mike Maddux handed him the start in the vital game.

“It ain’t nothing, it’s pitching,” Heaney added after that start. “You just got to get outs. I’m prepared to get outs when I’m in the bullpen; I’m prepared to get outs when I’m starting. I’ll do whatever the team needs. I don't care.

“I got no ego. I just want to win games. I want to play for these guys. I love every one of these guys. I want to win for these guys.”

Now he’ll get the ball again on Saturday, albeit in another vital scenario: Game 1 of the Rangers’ American League Division Series matchup with the Orioles.

Heaney -- who signed a two-year, $25 million deal this past offseason -- has had what he personally described as a “Jekyll and Hyde” season. He has had good starts and even good stretches, but he has not been able to parlay that into consistency across the board. 

After opening the season in the rotation, he was moved to the bullpen a month after the Trade Deadline acquisitions of Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery. Heaney posted a 4.15 ERA this season in 34 games (28 starts).

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“I'm just going to do my best to go out there and go as hard as I can as long as I can,” Heaney said. “I think I’ve enjoyed being a little bit of a Swiss Army knife, trying to do a little bit of everything and help the team win.

“I’ve said it before, I'll say it again -- I don't have an ego. I just want to win ballgames. These guys decided that this is the way they want to go, and I'm just going to do my best to prove them right.”

Heaney made two starts against the Orioles this season -- one in Arlington, where he gave up seven runs in 2 2/3 innings in his Rangers debut on April 4, and another in Baltimore, where he tossed seven innings of one-run ball on May 27. 

The lefty’s only postseason experience came last year with the Dodgers. He threw three innings in relief and allowed one earned run against the Padres in Game 3 of the NLDS.

“That was a good thing for me to kind of understand where my head was going to be, where my emotions and the adrenaline's going to be,” Heaney said. “Obviously, I know tomorrow's going to be rockin’ here with an afternoon game in Baltimore. So I'm excited.”

With Montgomery following Heaney in Game 2 on Sunday, the Rangers are in a good place for the rest of the ALDS. Montgomery will be on regular rest, and Nathan Eovaldi will be on extra rest come Tuesday for Game 3 in Arlington. 

It is worth noting that the Rangers are rolling with two left-handed pitchers in Games 1 and 2 against an Orioles club that went 36-17 (.679) vs. left-handed starters this year, better than their 65-44 mark (.596) against right-handed starters.

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Montgomery would be lined up to pitch a potential decisive Game 5 on Friday. 

But the Rangers need to get there first, starting with Heaney on Saturday -- and Dane Dunning and Martín Pérez in bullpen roles, at least for this series.

And to be fair, this is what manager Bruce Bochy does best -- configure pitching staffs in the best way possible to put his team in a position to win games and series. He has three World Series titles to show for it in San Francisco. 

Now with Maddux at his side, the club is confident in where it is heading this October. 

“Just the same as your manager needs to have the confidence in his pitchers and put them out there and give them a chance to succeed, we’ve got to go out there and try and prove him right,” Heaney said. “He's got that experience. He has that intuition after being in the game for a long time, obviously. 

“It's not just making a decision based on what a piece of paper says. There's a lot of factors and things that probably some people don't even see that aren't even happening on the field, right? I think he has that ability to really read the vibe of his player that way.”