Rangers' pitching staff silenced AL MVP candidate with dominant weekend pitching

Cal Raleigh has slugged his way into the top of the American League MVP race. The MLB home run leader entered the weekend against Texas facing the top of their rotation and didn't step up to the challenge.

After a solo home run in game one on Thursday, the slugger would go on to strike out nine times in the following three weekend games. Jack Leiter, Merrill Kelly and Jacob deGrom would combine to make Raleigh's life a weekend long nightmare.

The most impressive and biggest takeaway for Rangers' pitchers was giving Raleigh what die hard baseball fans have labelled the "Platinum Sombrero." This is the award given for a 5 strikeout game by a batter in a single game, which Raleigh did on Saturday.

It was a strong showing out of the newly fortified pitching staff in Arlington. This follows an odd trend on Raleigh's MVP level season where he is now hitting .231at home this season while his power numbers are still strong.

This odd trend worked in the Rangers favor this weekend despite the outcomes of the games. Rangers pitchers went in wanting to shut Raleigh down and make the others step up and they unfortunately did.

Another odd trend is Raleigh's numbers against the Rangers. He is also hitting just .224 against the Rangers in his career but despite the low average and contact rates, he has still hit for plenty of power with 12 home runs.

Luckily for the Rangers, they don't have to play against Seattle anymore this year. The race for the final Wild Card playoff spot will not include anymore games with the last two currently in the race.