The Rangers have won 10 in a row and are back in it

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Coming into the season, the Rangers were arguably the favorites to win a competitive American League West and were among a handful of teams that had a chance to represent the AL in the World Series. It was a balanced roster with strong starting pitching atop the rotation, a deep bullpen, and a lineup that features both youth and experience. Despite outperforming their Pythagorean record by quite a bit in 2016, there was plenty of reason to be optimistic about the Rangers heading into this season.

Then the season started, and everything headed downhill. The pitching wasn’t looking as strong as we had once thought, with Cole Hamels in particular pitching below expectations. The offense was sputtering, thanks to underperformance across the board and injuries to key players such as Adrian Beltre. The bullpen couldn’t find any consistency, particularly with its original closer, Sam Dyson. By the time May 9 had rolled around, this team was 13-20, in last place in the division, and looking ready to roll over. The conversations went from what they could do in the postseason to what they could get for Yu Darvish at the trade deadline.

Now, the positivity is back in Texas.

The Rangers are on a roll, having won their last 10 games. Now at 23-20, they can once again focus on making good on their preseason expectations. As was hoped for, they are currently getting production from both their young guys and their veterans. Jonathan Lucroy and Mike Napoli are both swinging hot bats, as are Nomar Mazara and Joey Gallo. The bad news is they still play in the same division as the Houston Astros and thus the Rangers, even after winning 10 in a row, find themselves 6.5 games out of first place. Still, they’ve come a long way and are right back in the playoff picture with this winning streak.