7 games under .500, 1 game back of 3rd place...and a 14-7 finish to the season would mean finishing at .500 on the season. Not a bad comeback, given that three months ago, the local pundits were proclaiming this team the worst in baseball...
I've seen some folks worrying that the Rangers' finish might be strong enough that they'd end up in the top half of the league, and thus lose their first round pick when they go out and moneywhip Torii Hunter this offseason.
Right now, there are 14 teams (including the Rangers) with a sub-.500 record, and Toronto, the Cubs, and Milwaukee are all 3 games over .500.
In order for the Rangers to lose their first round pick, they'd have to pass all of the sub-.500 teams, and two of the teams currently above .500. That would mean, even if the Rangers went 14-7 the rest of the way to get to .500, two of those teams would have to go 9-12 just to end up with the same record as Texas (or Colorado would have to go 8-13, or Atlanta would have to go 8-12).
Is it possible? Sure. But it is very unlikely.
Evan Grant says Luis Mendoza and A.J. Murray both impressed with their performances yesterday, and Mendoza will likely get another start before the end of the year. Mendoza wanted to go back out for the third inning, after taking a shot from Nick Swisher off his knee, but it was starting to swell and the Rangers preferred to err on the side of caution.
Hank Blalock is now up to .295/.346/.530 on the season. The fact that he has looked so much more like the old Blalock makes it that much more disappointing that he missed so much time this year with a freak injury...
T.R. Sullivan has injury updates on Kason Gabbard and C.J. Wilson. Gabbard's thumb blister had been bothering him in his last couple of starts, and contributed to the control problems that plagued him in those outings. Wilson has a sore ribcage and won't pitch again until Tuesday, at the earliest, with the Rangers wanting to monitor his workload and avoid having him pitch in back-to-back games the rest of the way.