In what is a weekly segment, let's take a look around the rest of the AL West, which includes your Texas Rangers in a tie for second place behind the Los Angeles Angels, who they play this weekend.
Los Angeles Angels (21-17) — Luckily for the Rangers, and everyone else in the division, the Angels haven't stepped forward and taken control of the division, because they've had the opportunity. Just 5-5 in their last 10 games, the Angels are still chugging along behind ace Jered Weaver, who is the April-May Cy Young winner, hands down. They're coming off a loss to the White Sox on Wednesday and will enter the weekend series in Texas with a 1 1/2 game lead after Oakland and Texas were washed out on Wednesday.
Texas Rangers (19-18) — The Rangers spent one day as a .500 ball club, and don't want to go back to being that any time soon, considering it had been more than a calendar year since they were last .500. The Rangers are coming off a 7-2 win over Oakland on Tuesday and a 7-0 lead on Wednesday that was erased by Mother Nature. They've won just three of their last 10 games but this weekend would be a great time to start a little winning streak against the Angels.
Oakland A's (19-18) — The A's are about to host a three-game set against the struggling White Sox and you'd have to figure they probably win that series. As always, they're carried by their strong, young pitching staff though that suffered a blow on Wednesday when Dallas Braden was shelved for the year with a shoulder injury. They've been without him all season, but that was not expected. It's a blow, but they'll still be good pitching-wise.
Seattle Mariners (16-21) — Same old story for the Mariners. Pitching is pretty good, but the offense is pretty terrible and can't produce runs. Their big bat, Milton Bradley, was designated for assignment this week likely for a mixture of on-field lack of production and for the fact that he's a pretty tough guy to get along with.
