In what is a weekly segment, let's take a look around the rest of the AL West, which includes your Texas Rangers continuing to keep their narrow lead over the rival Angels as both teams have split their last 10 games.
1. Texas Rangers (66-52) — The Rangers are under .500 this season on the road, which is interesting considering they are about to embark on a 10-game road trip beginning tonight in Oakland, which is a series they need to at least take 2 of 3 in, if not sweep with the top 3 in the rotation going beginning with C.J. Wilson tonight. After the three-game weekend set with Oakland is when things get really interesting, as the Angels will host Texas for four games next week in what will be pivotal for the division race.
2. Los Angeles Angels (64-54) — The Angels met up with Robinson Cano and the New York Yankees this week and have dropped their previous two games thanks to some Cano home runs. The Angels travel to Toronto this weekend for a three-game set as the Blue Jays are coming off a 10-3 loss on Thursday. As we've said all year, the Angels are scary in the top three of their starting rotation, but at 4 and 5 they have serious question marks. Expect the Rangers to hold the Angels off this year, but it's going to be a fun, tight race.
3. Oakland A's (53-64) — In a bit of a statistical anomaly, every team in the AL West is now 5-5 over their last 10 games, but these bottom two are not in the same league as the top 2. The A's have been decimated by injuries and preseason hype and are obviously the main reason this division has become such a two-horse race. Wonder if C.J. Wilson's comments about the A's park and their fans will rile this team up tonight? We'll see.
4. Seattle Mariners (50-66) — Poor, poor Mariners. They have the pitching to be legit, but the other night when they salvaged one win over the Rangers to avoid being swept, they had two guys hitting below .200 in their lineup and three more who were right on the brink. This could be one of the worst hitting teams in MLB history.
