With three starts left, Cole Hamels is in one of the frontrunners for the Cy Young award, despite being second in the American League in walks allowed with seventy-two.

It’s great being in a one-team division.

The Rangers are treading water in September at 7-6, yet their lead in the West has shrunk by just one game since the beginning of the month.

How they play doesn’t seem to matter. They are the fastest horse in a one-horse race. All season long nobody else in the West seemed to want to catch them.

This team is really on cruise control. In a good way.

While they have no concerns in September, there is one dark cloud forming that could rain on their October.

That would be their bullpen.

It started the season bad and has continued that way. It is still the worst in the American League. And that can’t be blamed on early season woes or Wilhelmsens.

In the thirteen games the Rangers have played so far in September, the Rangers bullpen has surrendered runs in eight of those game. And in five in a row.

This September the bullpen has logged 47.0 innings and given up 24 runs. That’s a 4.60 ERA. And that’s not even counting the number of inherited runners let in.

The Rangers bullpen has not gone more than three games in a row without allowing an earned run, either.

That is an unreliable bullpen.

Before October arrives, make sure you are all caught up with your respective priest, rabbi, shaman, preacher, dalai lama, deacon, monk, or whatever spiritual leader of choice.

You are going to need it.

We all are going to need it.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Kendall Graveman (10-10, 4.13) vs. Cole Hamels (14-5, 3.24)
Game time: 7:05

How the Athletics hit against Hamels.
How the Rangers hit against Graveman.

RANGERS MAGIC NUMBER: 8