Homestand Could be Season Defining

The Rangers just finished a season-long 10-game homestand with a 7-3 record, a huge step for what had been the worst home team in the American League.

The teams they faced — Yankees, Giants and Astros — entered their respective series with the Rangers with a season record of 37 games over .500. That's not exactly a great recipe for a successful homestand.

Yet, that's exactly what it was for the Rangers, who actually passed up Seattle and Oakland, leaving them fighting it out for "worst home record in the AL" bragging rights.

Let's go ahead and throw out the first two games of the homestand against the Yankees, both losses including a 21-5 embarrassment. From that point, Texas went 7-1 with its only loss coming in a game the bullpen collapsed in after Cole Hamels was decent in his Rangers debut.

In those eight games, the Rangers averaged 5.9 runs per game while allowing 4.5 runs per game. They beat a couple of aces in Madison Bumgarner and Scott Kazmir — both games pitched by Nick Martinez, of all people — and also bested Giants' new acquisition Mike Leake, who entered that game on a tremendous run before being outpitched by Martin Perez.

There was a lot of positive to take from this last couple of weeks, and now they get to take the show back out on the road. They are tied for the best road record in all of baseball with the Cubs.

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