59-60 - Elvis leaves Tigers all shook up on day of King’s death

The Rangers have left a lot of meat on the bones of the 2017 season. Be it bullpen blow ups or leaving runners on base, I don’t think we’ve seen this year’s squad live up to its potential or even take advantage of opportunities like we’ve seen them do in the past few seasons.

They can’t erase those mistakes or missed chances but at the very least, they’re trying to atone for them. Texas has now won six of seven, seven of ten, have a run differential of +26 — which is good enough for fifth best in the AL — and actually finished off a sweep tonight after failing to do so on Sunday against Houston.

Texas outscored the Tigers 28-12 over the three games in this series and none of the three games were particularly close.

Thanks to 17 hits from the offense, homers from Nomar Mazara, Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, and Joey Gallo, and every starter reaching at least once except for Mike Napoli, the Rangers blew out the Tigers 12-6 tonight even though starter Cole Hamels had his worst start in a few weeks.

With the win, the Rangers are now just a game below .500. Texas remains two games behind the Anaheim Angels for the second Wild Card spot but they’ve passed both Baltimore and Tampa Bay tonight.

Texas is just a half game back of Seattle, a game back of Minnesota, and 1.5 games back of Kansas City. However, Texas is tied with the Twins in the win column, a game ahead of the Mariners in the loss column, and just a game back of both the Angels and the Royals in the loss column.

The Rangers have sort of screwed around and found themselves in the weirdest playoff race we’ve maybe ever seen.

Player of the Game: Elvis Presley died on this date in 1977. Elvis Andrus honored his namesake by going 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs. As Anthony Andro pointed out on Twitter, Elvis the baseball player is batting a Ted Williamsian .406 on this date over the course of his career.

Up Next: The Rangers welcome the American League’s worst team, the 45-win Chicago White Sox, to Arlington for a four-game series. In the opener, Tyson Ross will pitch for Texas against young Chicago RHP Reynaldo Lopez in his second start of the year. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.