A lot has changed in the last three weeks since I last wrote about this team. They have stopped the roller coaster that they were on and have turned into a train. They just are steamrolling opponents during this 6 game winning streak and during this entire month of May. They won yesterday 10-8 in a back-and-forth affair with the Cleveland Indians. That means they have scored 10 runs or more in 3 of the last 4 wins and are doing all of this on the road. It simply is the best baseball this team has played since a 7 game winning streak at the end of the 2013 season forced a one-game playoff with the Tampa Bay Rays. Baseball as a fan and it looks like to the players is fun once again. This team looks like it is taking on the personality of their best players, Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre. They are both professional guys, but they truly enjoy playing the game and that is visible on a nightly basis. That love for the game has spread to the entire clubhouse. They will lose games this season, but this team will not fall apart as long as Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre are there. If they get to .500 tonight that would be great, but that is not the goal. They still have two thirds of the season left to catch the Houston Astros and try to win this division. That is the goal as we finish up the month of May and enter into the summer months.

Lets take a look at how they have been able to win these games during this 6 game winning streak. It begins with the scalding hot play of Prince Fielder. I will say I have been hyper-critical of the Prince Fielder-Ian Kinsler trade since the day it was made. I thought it was not a necessary trade, that they took on a bad contract for no reason, and that Prince did not have much left to offer them. I also thought that he would demand to play first base and would just be another guy who hits .250 with 20-25 home runs. He would hinder their defense and clog up the basepaths. For the most I was right to think that, because that is the player he had been throughout his career. That has changed this season though. He missed almost all of last season and that may have changed how he looked at his career. He came into this season with a renewed attitude and a better approach at the plate. In April teams kept playing him to pull and he would hit it the opposite way for singles and doubles. The power was not quite there, but he did not get frustrated or go back to exclusively pulling everything. He just kept hitting the ball wherever it was pitched. In May the power has arrived and he is still hitting it to all fields. That has led to him having a .392 batting average, 8 home runs, 25 rbi’s, and a 1.145 OPS. He has been obscenely hot this month. If not for Jason Kipnis of the Indians playing out of his mind as well, Fielder would clearly be having the best month in the AL. He has been impossible to pitch to. He is hitting line drives to the gaps and is coming through almost every time he is given an RBI chance. He is really driving this offense. He also has not demanded to play first base. He realizes that Mitch Moreland is better defensively than he is and is willing to play DH on a nightly basis in order to give the team a better chance at winning. That was a huge admission and cannot be understated how much that has helped this team.  Right now he is making me look pretty stupid for opposing that trade and I love it. He is playing at an MVP-type level right now and if he can keep it up the the team will continue to play well.

Another thing that has happened is that the reconstituted no-roles bullpen is actually working. Prior to this road trip everyone in the bullpen had their job to do. Neftali Feliz was the closer, Shawn Tolleson and Tanner Scheppers were the 8th inning guys, Keone Kela was the 7th inning guy, Alex Claudio was the left-handed specialist, Anthony Bass was the long-man, and Kyuji Fuzikawa was pitching in middle relief. Everyone had their job and for the most part everyone was failing at their job. They had 8 blown saves and cost the team a few wins. If they end up missing the playoffs, the performance of the bullpen in April and early May will be something that can be looked back on in regret. Jeff Banister and the organization had decided they had seen enough and decided to get rid of labels. Since that change at the start of this 9 game road-trip the bullpen has been great. Shawn Tolleson has saved 4 games on this trip and even Ross Ohlendorf has a save. Ohlendorf and Sam Freeman have both gotten critical outs in the 8th inning when normally Scheppers or Kela would have been brought in. Kela and Scheppers have pitched whenever the situations demands it, and not just in the 7th or 8th innings. They also have pitched more than just one inning. Banister has been pulling all the right strings and it has worked out wonderfully. Who knows if this will be a long-term solution or a short term fix, but I do know that it is working right now. That is all that matters. The bullpen is pitching with more confidence and Tolleson is nailing down games when given save situations. Tolleson is the de-facto closer, especially now that Feliz has went on the DL with an abscess removed from his right side. That is another major reason why they have been able to win 6 games in a row heading into tonight’s game against Cleveland.

The offense scoring more runs than anyone in MLB with 131 in just 24 games and the bullpen finally able to close things out is what has led them to this point and it is what will hopefully keep them playing well throughout this summer. The Astros have a feel of a team that is playing well right now, but they can be caught. They will not continue to play at this level. The Rangers just need to stay consistent and ready to pounce when the Astros do inevitably start to slip up. I have to say that baseball is fun to watch again and I love it. The players seem engaged on a nightly basis and are making the plays necessary to win. I would love to see this team get back in contention. With Derek Holland, Martin Perez, and Matt Harrison possibly due back this summer the rotation will get a lot better. They also have talent on the farm that could be ready to contribute at some point this year if needed. Guys like Luke Jackson in the bullpen, Roughned Odor possibly getting called back up at some point, and others that could help contribute to a winner. They are in good position to not only win in the long-term but they are setup to win now as well. I would love to see them surprise everybody and stay in the race all summer long and possibly even make the playoffs. Still a long way to go till then, but it is fun to imagine the possibilities with this team.

They play again tonight at 6:10 against the Indians. It will be a resurgent Wandy Rodriguez going up against Danny Salazaar of the Indians. The Rangers will be trying to make it 7 in a row which would tie that winning streak from 2013. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!