Only Two Clubs Ranked Higher Than Texas Rangers in American League

The Texas Rangers continue to lead the American League West despite one of the most anemic offensive attacks in baseball.

After showing signs of life, as well as a new batting order, to open their current road trip, the Rangers once again fell flat Wednesday night against the Athletics.

Texas (14-10) scored a season-high in the 8-5 win over the A’s on Tuesday -- in the process becoming the latest team in the Majors to score at least seven runs in a game. The Rangers were at their slugging best with four home runs, including a three-run dinger from Marcus Semien and solo shots from Wyatt Langford, Josh Smith and Jake Burger.

That was followed by a 5-2 loss on Wednesday, with Texas going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Langford homered again, but the bats were absent once again.

Those kind of all-or-nothing showings illustrate what kind of campaign it’s been for the Rangers who are still considered one of the best clubs around with the season being about a month old.

Texas checks in at No. 10 in the latest edition of ESPN’s MLB Power Rankings, which seems to be the general consensus among baseball insiders since they were also No. 10 in another iterations of these rankings.

The New York Yankees (No. 4) and Detroit Tigers (No. 9) are the only AL teams ranked above the Rangers.

But there were concerns stated about the Rangers going forward.

"The Rangers’ solid early pitching has helped them establish an early lead in the AL West despite a negative run differential. They will be hard-pressed to remain on that perch if their aggressive offense doesn’t start producing when it’s not hitting home runs. Texas is in the bottom five of the majors in swinging at first pitches, walks and scoring runs, and only four teams have relied more on homers to score. The ambush approach has worked for their attack in the past, but so far this year, it has not," ESPN wrote.

The ranking for the rest of the AL West are: Houston Astros (No. 14), Seattle Mariners (No. 16), Los Angeles Angels (No. 23) and the Athletics (No. 24).

The Rangers and Athletics (11-13) complete their three-game series Thursday night in Sacramento with Jacob deGrom on the hill for Texas.