The Rangers won four in a row, lost four in a row, then turned around and won four in a row again, beating the Angels 7-2 to finish April 14-10.

*****

EVERYONE HITS.
Originally published May 1, 2016

The first month of the season is over, and the Rangers are playing their best baseball.

Of course, it helps that they are playing the hapless Angels and not a team full of hap like the White Sox, but that’s how a season goes.

The key to the last night’s game actually didn’t happen in the Ballpark in Arlington, it happened in the Video Room in Manhattan, some fifteen-hundred miles away, when video replay confirmed what everybody in the Ballpark saw in the first place. Chalk kicked up. Which meant the ball Rougned Odor hit was, in fact, fair and not foul as the umpire somehow saw it.

Odor was awarded a double, DeShields was awarded third, even though with his speed he would have scored twice, and the Rangers six-run third inning was brewing, capped by Mitch Moreland’s three-run homer.

In the end, every Ranger picked up a hit, with Odor picking up three, all doubles, and Fielder two. Derek Holland went six scoreless. And the Rangers have now won four in a row and eight of twelve, and lead Seattle by half a game.

They won fourteen games in April, their best April since 2014, when they won fifteen.

Today, Cole Hamels returns as Texas goes for a sweep, and an undefeated May.