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Sports: Re-tooled Rangers chase ring

Jun. 6—It seems that Texas Rangers' fans, in recent years, have had to watch longingly as their downstate rival, the Houston Astros have bobbed to the top of the baseball world.

In 2022, while the Rangers were slogging to a 68-94 record, the Astros were surging to the World Series crown. For Houston, there've been four pennants since 2017. Texas hasn't had a winning record since they won the AL West in 2016.

When the 2023 season began, the Sporting News picked the Astros to win the West again but saw the Rangers improving to 80-82 and credited them with making the biggest free-agency splash in the off-season.

When the first pitch was thrown in the current season, the Rangers were ready to answer the bell. The April — May turnaround over last year has been dramatic as the team came out of last weekend in first place, with a 38-20 record.

Second baseman Marl Semien was hitting over .300, about .50 points higher than last year at this time.

Josh Jung has belted 12 home runs and was AL Rookie of the Month in both April and May.

On the mound, a couple of pitchers were 5-0 after May 1. Nathan Eovaldi and Jon Gray posted ERAs of 0.82 and 1.60 during that stretch. And those are just a few of the contributors to the hot start.

Through Sunday, Texas had won 12 of their last 15, and stayed ahead of the Astros, who logged in at 35-24.

Longtime Rangers are fans are understandably excited, but have long since learned to keep their hopes in check when the long-hot summer rolls in. True — there's a lot of baseball to be played, but with the talent on hand, this could turn into a tight pennant race, still in doubt come September.

The Texas Ranger franchise began as the Washington Senators in 1961 and moved to Arlington a decade later. These are not the Senators of Walter Johnson and "Damn Yankees" fame, those guys packed their bags and moved to Minnesota after the 1960 season.

The 1961 Senators began as an American League expansion team and moved to Arlington after a decade of futility in the nation's capital. Then, in 1962, the expansion Houston Colt 45s joined the National League. Since that time, Houston has won two world titles, while Texas has reached the World Series twice, losing to San Francisco in 2010 and St. Louis in 2011.

The six decades without a MLB championship is currently the longest for any pro franchise in their respective sport.

Losing that seven-game series to the Cardinals when they were a pitch away from ascending to the throne has to be the saddest moment in Texas Ranger franchise history. It will only be erased when they come away with that ultimate win. Could this be the year? At this point you could say it's a definite, maybe.