A week and six games into the regular season and I'm left asking, is this really the Texas Rangers?

Sure, they're 3-3, but five quality starts in six games and a complete game are unheard of around Arlington.

From what I can see, they've still got the "T" on their caps and and ol' Michael Young is still holding down shortstop. Indeed, they're still the Rangers and they're doing their best to get their fans' hopes up with effective pitching.

Most recently, the Rangers took two of three from the Angels in Anaheim, with the one loss being Kevin Millwood's 2-run complete game. It figures that the team would lose given its first complete game in over a season.

The Rangers looked as good in the wins. Kason Gabbard pitched 7 scoreless innings in the opener--a far cry from his horrid spring--and Vicente Padilla turned in a second consecutive solid performance, fighting through 7 innings after giving up four runs early. Padilla showed the grit and determination that carried him to 15 wins in 2006.

The lone poor performance came from newcomer Jason Jennings who gave up four runs in 5 innings to the Mariners, but he only gave up five hits, two just happened to be homers.

As a result of the deep innings pitched by the starters, the Rangers bullpen has been been largely untested. From the limited time out there, Joaquin Benoit excelled Sunday, striking out the side facing--get this--Vladimir Guerrero, Garret Anderson and Torii Hunter. Jamey Wright and C.J. Wilson have also looked good in their maiden performances.

In reality, the only pitcher to struggle has been reliever Dustin Nippert who allowed six runs in the 9th inning of Gabbard's win. Acquired from the Diamondbacks right before the start of the season, Nippert probably won't stick around long if his shaky track record is any indication.

On the other side of the plate, the Rangers offense has been streaky at best. Josh Hamilton has shown flashes of his power and David Murphy has established himself as the most consistent hitter early on. After a strong debut, Michael Young has struggled to find his stroke (.240 batting average) along with outfielder Marlon Byrd (.000). New first baseman Ben Broussard has been all-or-nothing with three home runs and a .190 batting average. 

And for the final note on the Rangers offense we head to this week's Silver Lining.

The Silver Lining: Gerald Laird's outburst. The catcher who has drawn his fair share of ire made his case for the starting spot and did his part to justify the Rangers sending down Jarrod Salralamacchia to Triple-A with a 2 home run, six RBI performance against the Angels. He came into the game hitting .091 and I was ready to write another piece tearing his mediocre offensive abilities apart, but Laird did his best to shut me up. Here's to you Mr. Laird, keep it up, because next week is always a different story.

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