Let me say this again - there is no guarantee that the Rangers make the playoffs. The Angels have been staying close in the standings recently by playing consistently well against bad teams while the Rangers have been playing usually well against good teams. If this trend continues for the rest of the season (and well it may), this weekend with the Angels playing the Yankees is the last series against a really good team that the Angles have. If the Yanks are too tired to do what on paper they should be able to do without too much effort (i.e. rip the wings off the Angles and roast them over the campfire), then the race stays close up until the closing Texas @ Anaheim three-game series, and that could go either way, depending on how pumped up everybody is, as well as how well the Rangers stay focused and disciplined at bat and on the field. And there ain't no guarantee of that...
Dan was right back in April, talking about how starting 0-8 (or was it 0-6?) was digging a mathematical hole that would become apparent at season's end. Similarly, between the stretch with Hamilton & Cruz out and that mid-summer stretch where there were just too many brain farts causing all-but-won games to be lost, the Rangers are finding themselves now in a race far closer than they need to against an Angels team that right now looks at the math, the schedule, and their roster and says "uh, we can do this", and they just may well can. All 162 games count equally in the final total, right? This "ah, it's early" nonsense is just that - nonsense.
So c'mon Yankees (just for this weekend!), and c'mon Rangers. Get in that zone and don't fuck it up. Don't look like there's going to be any help from anybody but your own selves, so...there it is.
Imagine a Los Angeles of Anaheim vs Detroit ALCS...would that be...upsetting to The Baseball Establishment, or what!