Longest.
It’s the longest day of the year, and it would have been even longer if the schedule-makers’ off-day for Texas wasn’t filled by tonight’s raincheck game against Baltimore.
It’s being called a one-game series, meaning the Rangers need to take the Orioles down tonight to extend their franchise-record 10 straight home series wins (and then would have to sweep the Reds tomorrow and Wednesday to extend the record further).
Derek Holland faces Baltimore power righthander Kevin Gausman, which isn’t quite the same as Holland facing Mike Wright, which was the pitching matchup when this game was first slated to be played on April 17, but Holland has a really strong track record against Baltimore, who will be without the suspended Manny Machado . . . .
And yet, you can’t predict ball.
The Rangers own the second-largest division lead in baseball, at 8.5.
It trails only the cushion the Cubs have on the Cardinals, who just lost three straight one-run games at home to drop to 12.5 games out in the NL Central.
They dropped those three straight one-run games at home to Texas.
Two were late-inning comebacks.
The other was a 1-0 ballgame.
The Rangers are now on a 104-victory pace, which would blow away another franchise mark.
They’ve never had this big a division lead before the All-Star Break, and in fact they’ve only had a bigger lead at any point in the schedule in four other seasons:
1996, 1999, 2010, and 2011.
Playoff season. Playoff season. Playoff season. Playoff season.
But beware of dog days: After tonight against Baltimore and the next two against Cincinnati and three against Boston, the Rangers head out for 19 of 23 on the road, and 27 of 38, through August 9.
The division could very well be a whole lot tighter at that point. See 2015.
But all the uniformed guys can do is take care of the business at hand, and the Rangers have been doing that. They’ve built an unprecedented cushion, at least as far as this club is concerned.
And now Shin-Soo Choo is back and Yu Darvish should be soon and A.J. Griffin and Keone Kela, too. So should Tanner Scheppers and Drew Stubbs and, in all likelihood, by time that insane road stretch comes to a close there will also be at least one name to add to this paragraph whose potential impact may lag only Darvish’s.
Fun baseball is fun.
It’s the longest day of the year, but man, it would be just fine with me if first pitch was in about half an hour.
