Road Trip

Here we go. As I write this, the Rangers are on the road again. (Sing it Willie) This continues the early season schedule trend, with more travel and fewer games at home. This trip feels different, with the opponents looking a little less formidable than the previous visits to Chavez Ravine, Yankee Stadium and Wrigley Field. The reason? The next three opponents are Houston (the Lastros?), Colorado and the LA Angels , then a return home for a series against the Astros. These three teams currently have the three worst records in baseball.

You can’t take anything for granted, but you would certainly feel good about the Texas chances to start a good run. In a weird way, I would submit that there is more pressure to perform on this trip. We’re just a little past the quarter mark, but you just don’t want to miss an opportunity to improve your record after treading water during the challenging beginning of the season.

To accomplish their goals, Texas needs to continue their outstanding pitching and begin to deliver better offense. Joan Jung has been the team’s best hitter so far. Nimmo and Duran continue to produce, and Osuna has been a spark since he came up, but the rest of the lineup has been inconsistent at best. Burger is beginning to show signs of breaking out, and even Joc Pederson is contributing some. If those two can continue this recent trend it would certainly help. Josh Smith and Wyatt Langford have been out of the lineup with injuries, but they have as many hits in the last seven games as Corey Seager. In fact, so do I. 0 for 27. This trio needs to contribute for the Rangers offense to score more runs.

The Rangers won their first walk-off game Wednesday. Let’s hope that momentum carries over and we can see a successful road trip!

That’s one man’s opinion - what’s yours?