Rangers surprising win during hellish stretch could become the springboard they need

The Texas Rangers' 6-3 win over the Guardians in Cleveland on Monday night was the most important win of the season. Not just because it propels the team over .500 for the first time since April 26 and maintains their hold on first place in the AL West, but because of what they overcame mentally to beat an All-Star pitcher and a good team.

In the midst of a 15-game in 15 days stretch, arms were running thin, and it almost felt like Skip Schumaker - though he would absolutely deny it - was punting on this game to get back to Jacob deGrom and the top of the rotation on Tuesday.

The way the Rangers won is a massive psychological boost and could prove to be the season's turning point

The Rangers started Tyler Alexander. who was pitching for the third time in three days in the first inning, and followed him up with Chris Paddack, a pitcher who was on his couch yesterday, for the next three innings because they were out of available pitchers. And they still won.

You could have chalked this one up as a loss 9 times out of 10, but the Rangers managed to find that one win on a night when they had no business winning against Parker Messick - a dominant and aggressive lefty who is probably going to Philadelphia for the Midsummer Classic.

When you add that it was guys like Justin Foscue, Nicky Lopez, Evan Carter, and Cameron Cauley (in his first MLB game) as the main players, it is easily the most rewarding win of the season as we eclipse the halfway mark.

There were no homers. Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford, Brandon Nimmo, and Joc Pederson didn't even play! Not a single at-bat from any of them. It was the scrappiness and aggressiveness of some of the team's future stars, like Cauley, Carter, and Foscue, mixed with the diamond-in-the-rough, Lopez, who scratched out the most unlikely victory of the season.

Cauley showed he's already the fastest player on the team on that triple, and it's not even close. He glided around the bases and threw caution to the wind, going for three on his first hit in the bigs.

Lopez did what he's been doing since the Rangers picked him up off the scrap heap, which is getting big hits and doing the little things while giving maximum effort to help this undermanned team win another game. Foscue had two clutch doubles as he continues to bludgeon lefties. And Carter got his 2nd and 3rd hits of the season against left-handed pitching. He is now 3 for 29.

If this team goes on to have a special season and postseason run, you should look at Monday's win in Cleveland as the flashpoint when this team really believed they could win any game with any of their players on the field and in the lineup.

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