Astros drama is exactly what the red-hot Rangers needed in AL West chase

While not everything went perfectly for the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night, no one can deny that they've crept back into the playoff race in a big way. Not only that, but they've crept back into the AL West race thanks to both the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners hitting the skids at the end of August and beginning of September. In fact, the Astros are feeling the pressure, and Bruce Bochy and Co. need to take advantage.

The latest signs of the Astros came last night, when reliever Framber Valdez seemed to lose his temper with his own catcher. Valdez gave up a grand slam in the fifth inning of the contest between the Yankees and Astros. Before Valdez served up the homer, catcher Cesar Salazar tried to get his pitcher to step off the mound just before he threw the pitch. Valdez ignored that call and threw the pitch anyway, which led to Yankees outfielder Trent Grisham hitting it out of the park. The grand slam gave the Yankees a 6-0 lead at the time. New York went on to win 7-1.

How the Texas Rangers are quietly surging back into AL West contention

During the next at-bat, Valdez drilled Salazar in the chest with a pitch that appeared to get away from both of them. Salazar looked stunned, and eventually took his helmet off and stared at Valdez hard from home plate. Valdez immediately turned his back on Salazar and went about his business. It was a scene that Texas Rangers fans had to be loving, if their own team lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.

After the game, both Salazar and Valdez said all the right things. They claimed there were no hard feelings. But the damage was done. The Asros have seen a seemingly insurmountable division lead dwindle to 3 games over Seattle and 4.5 over the Rangers.

Meanwhile, Texas is playing without many of its stars and still winning 8 of 11 games. All the pressure is on the teams ahead of them.

The Texas Rangers need to take advantage and keep doing what they're doing. The longer they stay within earshot of first place and the Wild Card, the more pressure exists for the teams ahead of them to hold them off.