July has not been kind to the Rangers. The schedule makers are about to make up for it. 

The second half of the season started with a one-game stopover in Miami. Miami was shut out twice in a row before coming into Thursday’s game. The game before that, they lost 2-1.

The Marlins, in fact, are one of the few teams with a lower batting average than the Rangers. They had gone 25 innings in a row without scoring a run.

Now, it’s thirty-four consecutive innings without scoring a run.

The Rangers now move 3,000 miles west to face the worst team in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, who sold off most vestiges of major league talent in the off-season. They have an official major league charter without the major league talent. Genius. The Rangers tried that for the last five years. Profitable if you can pull it off.

So far, the Rangers are 7-3 against Oakland. They have three games coming up. There’s no reason to think they won’t win all three. Other than the 4-0 record against the Phillies, the Rangers have a better record against Oakland than any other opponent.

Yesterday, the Rangers kicked off the first game of the seon half with an 8-0 victory. Even though it was against the anemic offense of Miami, they jumped all over a good pitcher in Marlin’s starter Pablo Lopez. 

The Rangers have a long way to go to be competitive. But it sure helps beating teams they should be beating.

The schedule makers are been kind to the Rangers this week. It’s up to them to take accept the gift graciously.

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