Bad Time for an All-Star Break

We reached the actual halfway point of the baseball season a couple of weeks ago, but we work by a baseball calender instead of a mathematical one in these parts.

It might have been better for the Rangers if it worked the other way around. When the 81st game of the season ended, the Rangers were banged up and looking like a team in need of a rest.

Right now, though, the Rangers look like a team that should just keep on playing. Sunday's 2-0 win over the A's was their seventh straight in a string that has the team playing their best baseball of the season.

Adrian Beltre homered for the third straight day and is now batting .395 with five homers in July. Josh Hamilton, using an En Vogue song as his mantra, has fixed his swing and dealt with last week's tragedy with equal amounts of success. Michael Young and Ian Kinsler are swinging hot bats and Mike Napoli's power has exploded with an uptick in playing time.

Things are looking good on the mound as well. Matt Harrison's Sunday gem continued a string of solid pitching from Texas starters. Tommy Hunter's return has added some needed depth to the bullpen and Neftali Feliz seems to be mostly over the difficulties he experienced after coming off the disabled list.

This is not a situation that you want to monkey with all that much, in other words.

All season long we have been waiting for the arrival of the Rangers who overwhelmed the AL West en route to the World Series last season. They've finally shown up and now we have to sit and wait to find out if their momentum can carry over three days with the team scattered to the four corners of the country.

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If it can, the Rangers have a chance to open up some serious space in the divisional race. Their first seven games of the second half are against the Mariners and Angels, neither of whom look strong enough to stay the course against a Rangers team that's capable of what we've seen over the last 10 days.

Let's hope they found a way to bottle it, then, and keep our fingers crossed until we found out if they did.

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