Adrian Beltre decided that the Fourth of July was a great time to set off some fireworks at the Rangers Ballpark at Arlington. In fact, he liked it so much that he did it twice during the Rangers 5-4 victory over the division rival Mariners. Raul Ibanez matched Beltre with two homers of his own, but the Rangers clung to the win in the end.
Even though the Rangers lost the series to the Mariners, I was still impressed with their ability to bounce back against a tough starter and take the third game in the set from the Mariners. It does worry me, however, that this team seems to be really struggling against the bad teams while beating the good ones. If you want to be a contender, you have to beat the teams you are supposed to beat, and that included the Seattle Mariners.
That also includes the Houston Astros, whom the Rangers have dominates so far in the 2013 campaign. That fact worries me with the way they are performing against sub .500 teams right now. They need to keep winning during this stretch of playing losing teams, because the Athletics are not going anywhere.
This team has the talent, the heart and the team chemistry to go a long way this season, but so they have the focus to get to the post season? That is yet to be seen. It is now July and the season is over halfway done. It is time for the Rangers to take control of their own destiny and show the A’s that last season was a fluke and not something for them to get used too. Also, don’t look now but the Angels sure are winning a lot of games of late. This division could get real interesting very fast, and if the Rangers aren’t careful, they could be left on the outside looking in. Here’s hoping they get back on track this weekend against said Astros and keep themselves right in the thick of things going into the All-Star break.
