Monday Morning Rangers Update

Yesterday was a day for being grouchy. But there's no time to remain crusty as the Rangers open up a big four game home series against the Oakland A's tonight.

John Hickey of MLB.com writes a recap of the Rangers' 90th win of the 2012 season. It wasn't pretty, but it counts nonetheless. Also, the Yankees lost which gave the Rangers a two-game cushion in the race for home field in the American League. A byproduct of that New York loss was the fact that the Oakland A's won. That leaves the Rangers up four games in the AL West with ten games remaining.

Taylor Soper handles the ESPN Dallas Rapid Reaction to the Rangers' 3-2 series-salvaging victory over the Seattle Mariners. Good riddance to the Gateway to the Pacific. To think I was feeling forlorn at the idea of no more games against the Mariners before the series.

Jeff Wilson offers a brief recap of the win on the Star-Telegram blog. Wilson notes that the Rangers are the American League's first team to 90 wins. Also of note, this is the fastest a Ranger team has reached 90 wins in franchise history. So, there's that.

Soper writes on the Rangers winning yesterday despite failing to execute and missing on plenty of opportunities which sort of plagued a now forgettable series in Seattle. Be wary, there be disgusting July-esque RISP figures within.

Behind the DMN paywall, Gerry Fraley writes that the rest of the American League never made the Oakland A's go away so the Rangers are going to have to handle them themselves right now.

Evan Grant has an item on Ron Washington's praise of Craig Gentry's outfield defense and an update on limited tickets remaining for this series with Oakland.

Hickey's Notebook covers Washington and Mike Maddux partaking in preliminary playoff pitching plan preamble, a non-update-update on Josh Hamilton's sinus/vision issue, and other items.

Wilson's notes are locked down by something called Star-Telegram Press+ but they seem to be about the uncertainty of Hamilton's status and unlikeliness of Oakland's contention.

Lastly, since no one really knows who is even on the Oakland Athletics, the DMN has complied a slideshow of 12 Oakland A's you should know about before the Rangers face them starting this evening.