After the first two games of this all-important Texas-Seattle series, the Rangers are making a statement: The Mariners aren’t very good. 

You look at the pre-season predictions and teams all across baseball are just not living up to their expectations. 

Toronto and Seattle were in the Championship Series last year. The Blue Jays are in last in the East. Seattle just fell to third and has the benefit of having the Angels in their division, so they will always have a last-place team to be better than. So many baseball experts picked the Royals to be the surprise team in the central. They’re in last place. 

The Mets threw all that money at all those players. They’re in last in the N.L. East. And the Padres, who have had a nice run in the N.L. West lately and were predicted to fight for a wild card (nobody is winning the West other than the Dodgers), are languishing under .500.

The Rangers are getting the Mariners at a low point in their down year. Seattle keeps waiting for its stars to finally get going, but four months into the season, it’s not happening, and that’s just fine with the Rangers.

Last night, Nathan Eovaldi, who has had an up and down season to match the Rangers’, had one of this best starts of the season, allowing just one run in seven innings, striking out eight with just one walk. He lowered his ERA to 4.05. 

The Rangers need to keep the pedal on the gas today and tomorrow. They’ve won the first two games of the four-game series. It would be a shame if they reverted to their .500 selves and let Seattle come back and split this series.

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