Rangers still face challenges following winning streak
The Texas Rangers put themselves in some impres- sive company with their 10-game winning streak — but if the season ended now, t heywou ldn’t make the playoffs.
The Rangers still face their share of challenges, especially since they’re in the AL West, where Houston has baseball’s best record and a 5 1/2-game lead. Texas won 10 in a row before Satur- day’s loss at Detroit, but all thatrun did was help erase a poor start to the season.
It was the eighth time since the start of 2015 that a major league team won at least 10 in a row within the same season. Seven different teams have accomplished it, with Toronto pulling it off twice in 2015.
The six teams t hat did it besides the Rangers all went on to make the postsea- son. Right now, Texas is 1 1/2 gamesbehi nd the American about all of it. They go out and play.”
Here are a few other developments from around baseball: League’s second wild card. The Rangers rank toward the bottom of the AL in batting average (.237) and on-base percentage (.316), yet they’re fourth in runs (215). Players such as Joey Gallo (.184 aver- age with 13 home runs) and It’s hard for any pitcher Mike Napoli (.188 with 10 to reach 300 strikeouts in homers) have come to typia season with today’s workfy the way their offense has loads. Clayton Kershaw had worked in 2017. 301 in 2015, and he’s the
Texas has been without o nlypit cher to reach 300 in Adrian Beltre, who has been the past 14 seasons. sidelined all season with calf Boston’s Chris Sale issues. Gallo has given the has 95 strikeouts in 65 Rangers plenty of power any- ⅔ innings. If he keeps up way at third base, but when that pace and throws 225 Beltre returns, it will be innings (he threw 226 ⅔ last interesting to see how Texas year) then the left-hander works out its roster. would be projected to strike
Manager Jeff Banister out 326 batters this season. doesn’t want players to start worrying about how roles might change when others return.
“The daily routine and grind takes precedent over thinking about that,” Banis- ter said. “If you think about that, you’ll make the decision very easy. These guys, they’ve been professional
If the Chicago Cubs were in another division, their unspectacular start might be cause for more concern, but even at 22-20, they’re only two games behind first-place Milwaukee in the NL Central.
The Cubs beat the Brew- ers 13-6 on Sunday.
They have looked surprisingly ordinary offensively, with only Kris Bryant really distinguishing himself with the bat, but even great teams can underachieve for extended stretches. Last year, Chicago lost 15 of 20 shortly before the All-Star break, and everything turned out fine.
The Oakland Athletics might as well have been taking batting prac tice in the fifth inning against Boston on Saturday, when Mark Canha, Khris Davis and Chad Pinder each hit mammoth home runs. The drives w ent 453, 429 and 460 feet, according to Statcast.
Avisail Garcia, White Sox, homered tw ice and drove in six runs in a 16-1 victory over Seattle on Saturday night.