ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -The Texas Rangers can really get excited if they are in the same position in four months.
For now, their majors-best seven-game winning streak and a significant lead in the AL West after sweeping the division rival Los Angeles Angels provide a different feeling.
“It gives us momentum and confidence, but it’s May. We want to be there at the end,” manager Ron Washington said. “We’re not looking at it like we’re in first place. We’re just trying to play the best baseball we can play.”
Ten years after last making the playoffs, the Rangers (23-14) can’t do any better than they did the past week, when they had an undefeated homestand with three-game sweeps of division rivals Seattle and Los Angeles. They have also been pretty good over an extended stretch this season.
Texas, which was off Monday, has won 17 of 22 and is nine games over .500 for the first time since June 2005.
ead. Los Angeles played at Seattle on Monday night.
“This series tells me our team is for real,” outfielder Marlon Byrd said.
Michael Young, the longest-tenured player on the Texas roster, made his debut with the Rangers the final week of the 2000 season – a year after they won the last of their three division titles.
There has since been one winning season (2004). The Rangers finished higher than third in the AL West only once, last year when they were second with a 79-83 record and 21 games behind Los Angeles.
So what does Young think about having an early lead over the preseason favorite to win the division for the fifth time in six years, and everybody else?
“Not too much,” Young said. “I’m more focused on the fact that we’re playing good baseball, rather than looking at the standings. The biggest thing is, we recognize we’re a confident group playing good baseball. If we do that, we will be fine.”
With a majors-best 62 home runs while scoring an average of 5.65 runs per game, the Rangers are still bashing the ball as they always have.
The obvious difference has been pitching and defense, the two areas that have hampered the Rangers so often.
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While only two AL teams have fewer than the Rangers’ 19 errors, the most significant improvement has been the starting pitching.
Texas had the most overworked bullpen in the majors the past two seasons. This year, Rangers starters lead the AL by averaging nearly 6 1-3 innings per game, a full inning more than last season.
Kevin Millwood (4-3, 2.93 ERA) has gone at least seven innings in all but one of his eight starts. Texas has scored only twice in two of his losses and the right-hander threw a complete game in a 2-0 loss to Kansas City and Zack Greinke.
Scott Feldman, who threw six scoreless innings Sunday, is 2-0 with a 2.17 ERA in five games since moving back into the rotation from the bullpen. Matt Harrison has won four straight starts, including a 22-inning scoreless streak, and became the first left-hander in the majors since 1911 to record 13 victories in his first 22 major league starts.
Brandon McCarthy and Vicente Padilla have both won three games.
“Pitching has been the story all year,” said Young, the five-time All-Star who is fifth in the AL with a .351 average after his streak of five consecutive 200-hit seasons ended last year.
dinitis, is expected to return Friday.
The Rangers open a three-game series Tuesday in Detroit, where they were swept the first weekend this season after starting 3-0 for the first time since 1996. That started a span when Texas lost nine of 12 before their resurgence to the top of the division.
“We’ll play it out and see where it takes us,” Washington said. “It is nice to be the hunted.”
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