The Texas Rangers won their 12th straight game last night, shutting out the Los Angeles Angels of Carmageddon 7-0 behind the strong pitching of Alexi Ogando. Ever so quietly, the defending AL champs have put together the longest winning streak in the majors this season. The 12 game streak is the second longest in franchise history and passes the 11 game win streak that the Rangers had last Summer in June. I was surprised to find out that the 12 game winning streak is actually the longest in MLB in over five years! The Red Sox last won 12 in a row all the way back in June 2006. When the winning streak started on July 4th, the Rangers were tied with the Angels for the lead in the AL West. As MLB wakes up this morning, Texas has the biggest division lead in the land at 5 games. Homefield advantage for the AL playoffs is also in sight for the Rangers, only 3 games behind the Boston Red Sox for best record in the league.
A key to the winning streak has been cleaning up on divisional opponents and if we look at the schedule, it may mean an easy walk for Texas to win another division title. Texas swept both Oakland and Seattle after taking 3 of 3 from the Orioles to begin the winning run. In fact, the Rangers have the second best winning percentage inside their own division in all of baseball. The Red Sox have the best divisional record, going 27-12 against the AL East (69.2%), the Rangers are 18-9 against the AL West (66.7%), and the Giants are 27-14 (65.8%) against the NL West. Interestingly though, the Rangers have played the least amount of divisional games in the majors so far this season, playing only 27 games. Part of this is due to the maddening inconsistency of imbalanced scheduling and the fact that there’s a missing digit in the four team AL West. For instance, the AL West only playes 57 divisional games in while the AL East and AL Central each play 72.
Believe it or not, the Rangers have thirty divisional games left out of the 65 remaining games on their schedule (45.1%) after only playing 27 of 97 games within the division (27.8%) till this point in the season. That means a huge backload of divisional games to end the season. With the slow decline of the Athletics and the rapid fall of the Mariners (losers of 10 in a row in their own right), the Rangers are big favorites to win the AL West once again. Time will tell if Ogando and others can carry them one step further in October.
Elsewhere last night: PirateMania continues to sweep the nation, they beat the Reds 1-0 last night. Detroit’s win and Cleveland’s loss see them tied at the top of the AL Central once again. The Jays needed 14 to send the Mariners to that aforementioned 10th straight defeat. Full scoreboard here.
On the docket tonight: An outstanding pitching matchup by the Bay as All-Star Clayton Kershaw duels with All-Star Tim Lincecum in a Wednesday matinee. Derek Holland looks to make it 13 in a row for the Rangers against Dan Haren and the Angels. Reds/Pirates and Yankees/Rays are two of the better divisional matchups on the slate as well. Full schedule here.
