I was wrong, the Rangers do have what it takes to hold off Astros in AL West

ARLINGTON — It was during Monday night’s 12-0 destruction of the Angels, Max Scherzer’s third straight victory with his new club, that I realized the error of my ways. It actually came after Scherzer’s seven innings of one-hit pitching when Martin Perez was closing out another Rangers victory.

Perez, mop-up man. The team’s ace of 2022 — the club’s only All Star pitcher last season — is no longer a member of the starting rotation, nor is he a regular set piece of the bullpen. Those roles go to Josh Sborz or sometimes Chris Stratton in the seventh, veteran Aroldis Chapman in the eighth and Will Smith in the ninth. Perez is somewhere around the 10th-most significant pitcher on the club, and this is with Jacob deGrom out for the year and Nathan Eovaldi still trying to avoid that diagnosis, and that tells you how one team’s pitching staff has undergone a total overhaul in one season.

Thus, the error of my ways. I keep thinking (and have written at least twice) that the Houston Astros are about to overtake the Rangers. If you’re of the belief that my mistakes contribute to the local club’s success, I’ll keep writing it — the Astros are about to catch the Rangers — but I no longer believe it. I mean with 40 games to go for Houston (41 for Texas), the Rangers’ lead is 2 1/2 games, so, yes, it could happen. But there’s no reason to be fatalistic about this if you’re worried about the World Series champs charging along the rail. For once, the Rangers have the pitching to hold them off.

Chris Young’s first full season as general manager is a massive success, even with deGrom giving the club six starts before undergoing Tommy John surgery.

“Once we signed Jacob, everybody wanted to talk to us,” Young said from the Rangers’ dugout Wednesday night. “He made us legit.”

And Eovaldi made the All-Star team. And Bruce Bochy’s managing ways are in evidence on a nightly basis. And the killer lineup gave Texas All-Star representation like only two AL teams have ever had. Even with a 2-0 shutout loss to the Angels on Wednesday, Texas has outscored the Astros by 92 runs this season. It’s not close as to which team’s batting order goes deeper and does more damage.

Back to the pitching. The Rangers are the early leader in Battle of the Great Ex-Mets. Scherzer is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 20 innings. Verlander, back where he captured the Cy Young Award in 2022, is 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 18 innings. On top of that, the Rangers got Jordan Montgomery from St. Louis and this did more than just patch a couple of holes in the rotation. Jon Gray’s quality start Wednesday was the Rangers’ 12th in August, and we’re barely past the middle of the month. No other major league team has as many.

”With the additions of Scherzer and Montgomery and hopefully Eovaldi coming back, it sets up the bullpen for success,” Young said. “There’s consistency and continuity. When that falls out of whack is when you have a couple of starts in a row where guys aren’t getting deep into games.”

It’s now a rarity when the bullpen has to operate before the seventh inning. That is a luxury in the modern game. Last year, I said the Rangers were three years away from competing with Houston. No matter how things play out in 2023, the competition is clearly on. So why was I so wrong about this club’s return to relevance?

A year ago Texas added its $500 million infield of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, not to mention Gray to the rotation and Mitch Garver at catcher. The team went from 62 to 68 wins. Who in their right mind thought this club was ready to push past 90 wins, even with some big-time pitching moves in the offseason? And yet the Rangers are slightly closer to catching Baltimore for best record in the AL than they are to being caught by Houston.

“In some ways, this year has exceeded expectations,” Young said. “But, in other ways, I’ve been part of teams that weren’t the most talented where things clicked very quickly. This team is a combination of both. It’s a really talented group of players that have that winning culture. A lot of that is the players, and a ton of credit goes to Bochy and his staff.

”I know this team has come together quicker than expected. But I also know you don’t place limits on what a team can do when you have a special group of guys and a talented group within that.”

Better offense than the Astros. As good a pitching staff as the Astros. A 2 1/2-game lead on the Astros.

More history, experience together? No, this Rangers team does not have that. During these last 40 games, we’re going to find out what matters and what doesn’t.

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