All-Star Selections Overshadow Successful Rangers Road Trip

Four wins. Four all-stars. For this Rangers fan, that equates in to a fairly successful road trip.

Our Rangers made their last ever regular season trip to Yankee Stadium this past week. For Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Josh Hamilton, and Milton Bradley, they have at least one more time to visit.

They will make the trip to the Bronx later this month as they have been selected to represent the Texas Rangers in the mid-summer classic.

Perhaps the most deserving and unappreciated Ranger is Ian Kinsler. His production from the lead-off spot this year has been nothing short of spectacular.

Kinsler leads the American League in hits, extra base hits, runs, total bases, and stolen base percentage (23 out of 24) just to name a few. I guess we know who is accounting for the majority of Josh Hamilton's RBI this season.

One of the biggest adjustments Kinsler has made this year is his willingness to take a pitch up the middle or to right field. Remember last year when Kinsler started on a tear hitting all those home runs in April and then struggled to keep up that pace?

Now he is simply letting the ball get deeper in the zone and taking it wherever the pitch is placed. I wonder if he picks Michael Young's brain about any of this.

The Texas Rangers return home to the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington tonight to face the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a four game series in an extremely pivotal AL West matchup.

We need to bring out the brooms. As of today, the Rangers are 7.5 games back of the Angels. With a sweep, it would bring that number to 3.5 games.

The Angels possess one of the best starting rotations in all of baseball and have three pitchers in this month's all-star game.

What will prevail between this matchup? Big bats or power pitching? Hopefully the well documented "jet stream" at the Ballpark will help some of those Rangers hitters climb ever closer to the AL West lead.