Why do the Rangers play to the level of their competition?

So the Rangers are rolling again. Four straight, just swept the Red Sox, weekend series coming up against the Royals, life is good, right?

In short, yes, life is good. But this weekend’s series should tell us a lot about this team. It is the Kansas City Royals, who just got shellacked in three games against the hated Angels, but Zack Greinke is on the mound Friday.

And the Rangers have struggled a little too much against subpar teams this season. Not to say the Rangers have been horrible against the bad teams, but there seems to be a contrast in their play against the lesser teams compared with their play against the big boys.

Take for example, earlier this month: the Rangers lost 3 of 4 in Seattle after winning 2 of 3 against the Angels. While Seattle is no slouch, the Rangers should have won the first game of that series.

Or just take last week: Minnesota comes in and wins 2 of 3. Again, the Twins are a decent team, but it should be the Rangers taking 2 of 3 at home. No team should come into Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and win a series.

Against teams who have a winning record right now, the Rangers are 34-26 on the season. That record is even better at home: the Rangers are 21-9 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington against teams with a winning record.

So against teams with losing records, the Rangers are 18-15. That’s not going to cut it.

Now what do those records mean? Not much, really. Five of the wins the Rangers have against teams with a winning record came against Houston, who wasn’t playing close to the level they’re at now. Same story for the Rangers against the White Sox – four wins from earlier in the season from when the Pale Hose weren’t clicking on all cylinders.

But the Rangers were also a little unfortunate with their early schedule, catching Baltimore and Kansas City when both teams were playing relatively well in the second week of the season.

That record is also dragged down because of a 2-4 record against the Blue Jays, who were over .500 both times the Rangers played them. Still, that record should be more like 21-12 instead of 18-15.

You want more stats? Sure. The Rangers are 9-12 against the first-place teams in the American League. Of course, Boston was in first until this week, so if you put them in that statistic instead of the Yankees, the Rangers are 12-9.

So what’s the point of these records? At the end of the day, nothing. It is fun to see how the Rangers are doing against the best competition, but in reality, all the Rangers can do is worry about themselves.

I don’t really have any answer for the question I posed at the top, though. Maybe the Rangers lose a little bit of focus, I don’t know.

The Rangers, on any given day, can go out and beat any team in the major leagues. Every major league team can. The difference between the good teams and the bad teams is that the good teams have a better chance to win more often than the bad teams do.

This weekend the Rangers have three games against one of the worst teams in baseball. Granted, Zack Greinke is starting for the Royals on Friday, but that can’t be an excuse.

Kansas City is struggling woefully right now, and the Rangers need to find a way to continue those struggles despite having a lot of players infected with the flu.

What did the Angels do against the Royals? They swept them. If the Rangers consider themselves to be in the same class as the Angels, they need to do the exact same thing.

They need to break out the brooms again against Kansas City.

Scott Feldman pic: http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/mssJKDAeSSh/San+Diego+Padres+v+Texas+Rangers/UECgRpzFAYY/Scott+Feldman