Texas Rangers Are Playing Well When It Matters Most

Houston Astros’ Hank Conger jogs back to the dugout after grounding…

The Rangers know when they arrive at the ballpark Friday to start a three-game series against Seattle, their sweep of Houston will mean nothing.

However, by the time the final out of their 25th game was made, the Houston Astros had transformed into a contender. After Wednesday’s game, Texas has now won four games in a row and five of their last six to take command of the division.

“He’s a guy that once he gets going, he’s as good as there is in the power game”, Rangers rookie manager Jeff Banister said of Fielder in his postgame press conference.

Texas Rangers’ Shin-Soo Choo, left, bumps fists with first base…

The Astros are not done yet as the Rangers still have to go to Houston for a three-game set.

The Rangers deserve a ton of credit for this four-game sweep.

Texas Rangers catcher Chris Gimenez, left, watches as Texas… OF Carlos Gomez (left intercostal muscle) did some exercises but didn’t swing a bat….

(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar). The Astros went into Arlington leading by 1 1/2 games and left town in second place.

The Houston Astros have struggled recently putting their post-season hopes in jeopardy.

“It’s hard to absorb these losses when we’ve put so much time and energy in”, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said.

As for the Rangers: Their run differential has become a bit of a talking point, with some insisting – accurately – that negative differentials typically forebode negative things for a team, and pointing to the Rangers’ season scoring margin as evidence they’ve played above their heads.

Royals 8, Indians 4 – Omar Infante drove in a career-high seven runs and Kansas City overcame some early sloppiness for a win in Cleveland.

Houston (77-70) had been alone atop the AL West for 49 consecutive days until losing Tuesday night.

The Astros bullpen let up two runs in the seventh as Drew Stubbs scored on a wild pitch and Adrian Beltre delivered an RBI double, which gave the Rangers a 5-2 lead. They hold a one-game lead over Minnesota for the league’s second wild card, which they’ve held since August 27.

“We haven’t played really clean along the way but we found a way to win ballgames. It’s just frustrating that we’re so close in most of these ballgames in the road trip and we haven’t cashed in”. 2014 was a rough year for the team and 2015 didn’t start off great either. “You chalk it up as that and move on”. Another had road swing has dropped the Astros to 29-44 away from home, among the worst records in the AL.

Texas (79-67) has won 12 of 16 this year against the Astros.

However, even with their two best starting pitchers slated in the first three games, the Astros did nothing to stop the flooding.

And they were ready for maybe their biggest series all season this week. Haberin offers some big names during the impressive run for Texas. Prince Fielder hit a solo home run in the third and a three-run, upper-deck blast in the sixth, giving him 21 for the season. It was the fifth home run at Tropicana Field that did not come down, the first since Boston’s David Ortiz hit one on September 17, 2008.

In the fourth inning, Napoli misplayed Evan Gattis’ wicked, but catchable, line drive into a double that allowed Jed Lowrie to score from first base.