Two weeks ago this morning: The Rangers had been swept in Cleveland. Back-to-back shutouts. No runs in 21 innings. Joe Nathan on the trade block. Six games behind the Oakland A's.
Woe was us.
And then ... A closed-door meeting. A Nelson Cruz season-ending suspension. Lots of Angels and Astros and crap on the soft schedule. Presto, the Rangers are in first place in the AL West.
It gets better.
*Friday the Rangers gave up only Leury Garcia to acquire Alex Rios -
no offense to Mike Bacsik, but he's already the best No. 51 in franchise history, right? - and he promptly showed up in Houston and went 4 for 7 with a couple of RBI.
*Just like that, Texas has won seven in a row, 12 of 13 and has gobbled up their division deficit and spit out a 1-game lead.
*At 68-50, only the '99 team (69-49) had a better record after 118 games.
*Martin Perez on Sunday accomplished something that Yu Darvish hasn't: A complete game. He became the second-youngest pitcher in Rangers' history to have a complete-game 4-hitter. Old-timers like me will remember the dazzling debut of 19-year-old Edwin Correa in 1986. (By the way, it wasn't that long ago that we were about to give up on Perez, right?)
*And even more help is on the way, as Lance Berkman continues his rehab assignment.
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Mostly what the Rangers have done during their significant mood improvement is beat up on the dregs of the AL. When they whip the lowly Astros again this afternoon, that will make it straight 10 wins over Anaheim and Houston.
Nobody welcomed the Astros to the AL West more than their Lone Star State neighbors. The Rangers are now 10-2 vs. Houston (by far the worst team in baseball) this year, and an astonishing 29-7 against the Astros since 2009.
If two weeks ago seems like a long time for Rangers' fans, try to remember as far back as
the regular-season starting with a loss to Houston.
Best news of all: The Rangers play the Astros six more times this season, including three next week in Arlington. (Of course, the A's are 11-1 vs. Houston with seven matchups remaining.)
That's the simplest answer to the Ranges' resurgence: Soft schedule. And it won't stop until September. Sandwiched between series against the A's, the Rangers will play eight consecutive series (24 straight games) against teams that are a combined 116 games under .500.
While it may be a soft "stretch" of the schedule at least in baseball all teams within a division play the same amount of games against each team. Remember that the struggles of this team started in June during their roughest "stretch" of the schedule. At the end of the year the best team wins, unlike the NFL with their convoluted scheduling procedures.
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