August 23, 2015

Backwards

The Texas Rangers defeated the Detroit Tigers 5-3 Saturday night behind another strong performance by Yovani Gallardo. Couple that with the Blue Jays crushing the Angels 15-3 behind six RBI by Josh Donaldson, and the Rangers now stand in the second wild card slot. The Jays lead the field by 5 games, putting them in a great position to make the post-season for the first time since 1993.

It also makes the AL West a bit backwards. The Angels, Athletics and Mariners were supposed to compete for the division title, with the two Texas teams bringing up the rear. At the start of the season, the Rangers appeared to need a number of things to go right for them to win, including a number of players successfully recovering from injury. When Yu Darvish and Jurickson Profar were lost early, most of those hopes disappeared. To prove it, the team record at the end of April was 7-14.

Things improved however. The offense found it’s way. The pitchers had a bad July, but bounced back in June. Rougned Odor and Delino Deshields helped them get stronger up the middle. Shin-Soo Choo and Adrian Beltre found their grooves in the second half. This is suddenly a team to fear.

The other thing that is a bit backward about Texas this season is their losing records against Oakland, LAnaheim, and Seattle (12-25) while they are 8-4 against Houston. They are playing well outside the division.

They are not a great team, but there are a number of those in the wild card chase right now. Including Texas, five teams are within 1 1/2 games of the second slot. Five not-so great teams fighting for one slot is a great scenario for a massive tie.

Update: Related, the greatness of Adrian Beltre. It’s been the golden age of third basemen, with so many combining great defense and offense.

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