Texas Rangers Wrap-up: There’s Reason to Believe

The season has kicked off, and the excitement of baseball is back in DFW. Expectations for the Texas Rangers aren’t high, but there’s still reason to believe.

That was not the Opening Day we were hoping for. Expectations aren’t very high for the Texas Rangers this season, but I was hoping for a better start to the season than what happened in Arlington on Thursday. Mike Minor pitched well until things fell apart in the fifth. The final score was 12-4, but it wasn’t the disaster that the score indicates. Thankfully, things turned around in the final two games of the opening series.

But the score of one game, or even three games won’t matter much this season. The hope is for the Rangers to stay competitive into August. If that happens, I’ll be happy. This year will probably be much like the 2018 season, as Jon Daniels continues to try to right the ship. The Rangers have been one of the best organizations in Major League Baseball the last decade, and there’s reason to believe they’re on their way back to the top of the sport in the next few years.

Reasons to believe… they’ll be harder to spot than in years’ past, but they’re there.

Like every time Rougned Odor lays off a high fastball or a breaking ball in the dirt. Every time Joey Gallo goes opposite field (which he’s done a few times already). Every time Ronald Guzman stretches for a catch at first base. Every time a young pitcher scraps for outs and fights himself out of a jam.

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There will be thousands of these little moments — these small steps of progress — and sometimes they won’t add up to much, but baseball is like that. Sometimes those moments are few and far between, and they are easy to miss amid all the losses. But other times, those little moments are all strung together, for a game, a week, a month, a whole season, and suddenly the air is a little chilly and your favorite team is staring down a big moment under bright lights in October.

So spend 2019 looking for those moments, for those reasons to believe in the Texas Rangers again. Find joy in the successes and failures of baseball, because every hit, every strikeout, and every at-bat means something. The Rangers may not end up where you want them to in the standings (though I think they’ll do better than most are predicting), but there’s plenty to watch for, and plenty of reasons to make your way out to the ballpark in 2019. Someone has to eat those two-pound chicken fingers, after all.

Get ready for 162 games of little moments, some fun, some sad, some inspiring, but all of them meaningful in some way. Get ready to believe in the Texas Rangers again.