The season started last Thursday. The season arrives today.

The Astros show up to The Shed for four games starting tonight. They’ve started off slow, winning just two of their first six, continuing their playoff trend of not winning at home. Their bullpen, which was called the best in baseball, has blown four saves already. They’ve become the 2023 Rangers.

The old adage in baseball is you cannot win the division in April, but you can lose it. Like most adages, it makes no sense and must have been written by someone crazy as a loon.

The Rangers cannot win the division in these four games. But they can really stir up the angst of Astros fans if they would win three of four. It’s a fan base that is already freaking out after six games. It’s a fan base that chased Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker into retirement. It’s a fan base that has to pretend they won the 2017 World Series fair and square, like Giants fans pretending Barry Bonds hit 762 home career runs legitimately. 

The Red Sox-Yankees is a huge rivalry. So is the Cubs-Cardinals and the Dodgers-Giants. But the Rangers-Astros is doing its best to elbow its way up into that league. Mainly because this is the first time both teams have been competitive since the Astros moved to the American League. 

The first huge series of the season starts today. Rangers-Astros. Here’s hoping Texas puts Houston on a downward spiral they never recover from.

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