The Rangers are the fifth worst team in the American League. Only Seattle, Oakland, Chicago and Boston have worse records.

At times, they have played well. At times they played like they don’t even belong in AAA. Mostly it’s been the latter.

Now it gets real. Now we see what this team is made of.

Texas is about to play its toughest thirteen-games-in-thirteen-days stretch of the season. One of the worst team in the American League is about to play four of the best teams in baseball.

In the next thirteen days they have:

Three games against the winningest team in baseball since May 1^st in the Los Angeles Anaheims, who are in first place in the AL West, have the second-best winning percentage in the league, and are 17-5 in their latest run. Oh, and they totally demolished the Rangers at home at the beginning of the month, sweeping a three-game series with ease 8-2, 13-0 and 12-6.

Four games against the New York Yankees, who are in first place in the AL East and have the third-best winning percentage in the league, and have been brutal against opponents the last month. And they are the Yankees, who the Rangers cannot beat.  Playing them at home, where they cannot win.

Three games against the Giants, who are the winningest team in baseball since 2010, a model franchise that the Rangers can only dream about, just three games out of first, and about six thousand games better than the Rangers in every aspect of the game.

Three against the Houston Astros, the best team in Texas, second place in the American League West, who are loading up for a playoff run, a team that, in one season, has turned its franchise around and left the Rangers in the dust. They barely climbed over Texas last year. This year, they have stepped on the Rangers face.

So, in the next thirteen games, we will see if this team is for real or not.

In the next thirteen games, predict how many games the Rangers will win.

I say five.

Your mileage may vary.