Texas Rangers Climbing Towards Top 10 in FanSided MLB Power Rankings

In this week’s edition of the FanSided Power Rankings, the Texas Rangers are back to climbing the charts. The team remained in the 15th spot last week but jumped two spots this week to 13th, just three spots from reaching the top 10. Any Rangers fans would have laughed at the idea of the top 10 at the beginning of May or even June. While baseball fans everywhere have been expecting a collapse, the team has continued their play and are should now be considered a good team and not just a team on fire. Here’s what was said about the Rangers this week:

"The Rangers have made a big move in the West, but an old nemesis is starting to rear its ugly head again; injuries. Sparkplug Delino DeShields Jr. is the latest to hit the DL after showing exceptional speed and on-base ability for a team that needed help at the top of the order. Texas may be hard-pressed to replace him for the next few weeks-Kyle Franzoni"

There were many high points this week, highlighted by a strong starting rotation and some solid hitting performances. Starters

and

each had shutout performances while

was one inning away from another complete game shutout. The biggest hit of the week belonged to

, who hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to win the game for the Rangers.

also came up with a big hit for the Rangers. He had a two-run single in the top of the ninth against the Chicago White Sox to put the team up 3-2 and

came in and shut the door in the bottom half.

The team won five of their seven games this week so they did not manage to have too many low points. The major low point was the balk that ended the 0-0 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth.

was the pitcher in the game that balked the run home, but the lineup deserves part of the blame after failing to score a single run in nine innings. Another low point was the struggle the lineup had against

. Even though they came up with the win, the lineup managed just two hits against Sale and struck out 14 times. In fairness to the lineup, very few teams are having any success against Sale who has a 1.18 ERA in his last seven starts.

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Taking a look around the American League West, the Houston Astros have won six of their last 10 games but drop three spots to 5th. The Rangers are closing in and have a chance to take the lead by the end of the month. The Los Angeles Angels have also won 6 of their last 10 but dropped in the standings this week to 16th as the Rangers have finally jumped them in the rankings. The Seattle Mariners continue to fall, this week by just one spot as they are now 23rd, a full 10 spots behind the Rangers. The Oakland Athletics once again remain in the 27th spot after a decent week. The team is struggling but the belief remains that any Billy Beane team can turn it on at any point and get back into the race.

Next: Texas Rangers June 20 Week in Review: Who's Hot, Who's Not