AL West Race

With only 14 games left in this long season, the Texas Rangers are in a position they didn’t see coming after this offseason. With all the hype going west with the big-time free agent pickups by the Angels, including our own CJ Wilson, the season was expected to be going much differently. Instead, the Rangers for the third year in a row hold the AL West lead by 4 games. The only difference from the past two seasons is the team contending to the title, and this year’s Oakland team is giving the Rangers all they can handle. Fortunately for Ranger fans, the team has picked up its play the last six weeks of the season, with Josh Hamilton and Adrian Beltre pounding the ball like we are accustomed to seeing. Mike Napoli also returning to the lineup has fans begging for another “year of the Napoli” with only a few games to play before the Fall Classic begins. Now a race for the ages is boiling up for the two wild card spots, something that is also new this year, so baseball fans are in for a fun next few weeks. The Rangers hold the best record in the American League, as well as the biggest division lead. A rubber match game Thursday night between the Rangers and Angels could all but end the Angels chances of contending for a title, and possibly knock them too far back to recover in this tight Wild Card race. In today’s world sports are heading towards more and more drama and excitement for fans, something we all need to buckle up and enjoy for the next three weeks. With a change in the game making more teams qualify for playoffs, anything can happen. We all remember the last night of the regular season in 2011, and the stage is set to contend with what many great baseball minds call “the greatest night in baseball history”.