Tuesday Morning Rangers Update

By way of an Angels defeat in Oakland yesterday, the Rangers lead in the American League West increased to three games while the team was watching Monday Night Football. That's a good night.

ESPN Dallas' Randy Jennings takes a look at where the Rangers stand after their day of rest. Ron Washington says the Rangers are looking forward, not behind and Michael Young says that means the Rangers will get to where they want to be.

Drew Davison resets the "wild" West race. There's a bunch of quotes from various players and a summary of why the Angels have been able to hang around (Hint: Three pitchers) but Ian Kinsler says it best: "We just need to win."

The DMN's Ryan Jones breaks down the remaining schedules for the Angels and Rangers and determines who has the edge. (Spoiler: It's the Rangers.)

Behind the DMN paywall Gerry Fraley writes about how a large amount of credit for the success of the Rangers' pitching staff this season should go to the catchers. Yorvit Torrealba and Mike Napoli have combined to hit as well as any Ranger catching duo since the days when Pudge Rodriguez was all the Rangers needed at backstop. But in addition to hitting well, Torrealba and Napoli have also handled one of the most successful pitching staffs in team history. Kudos indeed.

A big part of that successful staff has been C.J. Wilson. Anthony Andro notes that C.J. won the AL Player of the Week for his efforts.

Fraley writes that C.J. has been better this season than last and how C.J. partially attributes his ability to keep his emotions in check while pitching as a reason for his improvement this season.

T.R. Sullivan has a piece on Mitch Moreland's future with the club and indicates that he doesn't believe that the Rangers will look to replace Moreland with a high priced free agent this offseason.

As Louie Horvath reports, Michael Young has been named as a finalist for the Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award for his charitable work this season. That's pretty awesome.

The DMN has a radio transcript of Nolan Ryan on Galloway & Co. talking about the AL West race and the state of the pitching staff.

Finally, Fraley has a brief scouting report on tonight's game as Matt Harrison takes the mound while the Rangers get back to playing baseball.