Prior to today’s match-ups, the Texas Rangers have scored more runs per game than any team in the Majors (5.57), but they’ve also conceded more runs per game than anyone else as well (5.84).   That’s why they sit one game below five hundred (34-35).

People often talk about the different styles of football teams, with sides that prefer to win 4-3 than 1-0 becoming crowd-pleasers and media darlings.  It’s a maverick, swash-buckling way to play the game and it doesn’t often produce championship winners.  Teams that can grind out a 1-0 victory when they aren’t playing well are the ones that generally end up on top.  Tom Hicks’s manager at Liverpool certainly preaches the values of pragmatism over panache.

The Rangers aren’t playing to the galleries and you won’t hear Ron Washington saying that he’s happy for the opposition to score four runs because he knows his team will score five.  They are not playing a high-scoring game by design, although maybe Rangers Ballpark is having an effect?  No, the truth is that they can hit but they can’t pitch.  If their offense starts to falter, they could plummet quickly.  If they find some pitching, the Angels will have a battle on their hands in the AL West (even with their current 7.5 game cushion).

One thing’s for sure: if you’re a fan of high-scoring games, the Rangers are a good team to watch at the moment.

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