Monday Morning Rangers Update

Maybe it just took the beauty of the Great White North for Michael Young to rediscover his hitting stroke. After all, we haven't witnessed very many 3-5 games with extra base hits and five RBIs in the states this season from Face. It was nice to see.

On August 3--two days after the Rangers came back from the precipice against the Angels, and a day after the Rangers completed a four game split with Anaheim--AJM wrote about the next 16 games being "the toughest stretch of the Rangers' schedule."

Within that post he predicted that if the Rangers could survive that stretch, which ran through yesterday's game against the Blue Jays, with at least an 8-8 record, they would win the West. The Rangers went 9-7 and gained a half game on the A's and four games on the Angels. So that looks pretty good.

Chris "It's not a toomah" Toman's game recap at MLB.com focuses on Matt Harrison's solid outing and the offense--led by Young--coming up grand.

Bryan Dolgin serves up the Rapid Reaction to the Rangers' series clinching 11-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Drew Davison recaps the game and writes about Harrison's gem. Harrison was bummed he wasn't allowed to finish the game yesterday having only thrown 90 pitches through 8 innings. That makes consecutive games the Rangers have won with a starter leaving the mound disappointed. At least the circumstances are way more positive this time.

Evan Grant writes about Michael Young's power surge in yesterday's game and ponders if it is something that will continue for Young and the Rangers.

Davison spotlights Joe Nathan who broke the Rangers' record for most consecutive saves in a single season at 22 on Saturday.

Randy Galloway has a piece on the Melky Cabrera steroid story and how if anyone on the Rangers is using right now they should get their money back because it isn't working. I don't know what that means, though.

Toman's Notebook covers Koji Uehara beginning his rehab assignment on Tuesday with an eye toward an Aug. 26 activation if all goes well, Joe Nathan's record, and Mike Napoli's injury status.

Davison has notes on Young's outburst, Uehara's rehab, the production from the bottom of the order, and Napoli working to return on August 26 as well.

Lastly, here's the weekly DMN slideshow displaying how some of the Rangers prospects fared last week. I can't wait until Nick Williams is featured on this next season.