When you face a team like the Detroit Tigers, .200 hitters become .300 hitters. Sore armed pitchers become Cy Youngs. Good players become All-Stars. And All-Stars become Hall of Famers.

Then reality sets in. 

Then you score two runs in three games and you are lucky enough to leave Cleveland with one win. 

All that offense the Rangers just sported against the Tigers didn’t just disappear. It simply wasn’t real to begin with. 

Here’s the sum total of their offense in the series at Cleveland.

The Rangers offense is feast or famine. Against good teams, it disappears. Against bad teams, it comes alive. Perhaps no player best exemplifies this than Rougned Odor.

Take a look at his last six series. Three against the elite teams in the league in Houston, Oakland, and Cleveland. Three series against the dregs, in Seattle (one there, one here) and Detroit.

Against Houston, Odor went 1-for-11. Then 7-for-12 against Seattle. Then 2-for-16 against Oakland. Then 4-for-7 against Seattle again. Then 3-for-10 against Detroit. Then 0-for-10 against Cleveland.

He simply disappears against better competition. He was 14-for-29, or .428, against the two last place teams. He was 3-for-39, or .077 against the three teams with winning records. 

He hasn’t had a rebirth on offense or a re-awakening. He simply got a short reprieve from Mendoza-ville. 

Reality set in, and set in hard, in this three-game series in Cleveland. The Rangers can hang with the mediocre teams all day. They are light years away from being good.

*****

NO GAME TODAY.