The first place Texas Rangers keep on rolling on their way to the playoffs. As of Tuesday morning, they have an eight game lead over the second place Angels. The home crowd was big as they had a sellout three games in a row for the first time since 2004. Last week, they played five games against the hated Yankees and Red Sox and won three of them. David Murphy had a big night last Tuesday and was a big reason they pulled out the win over New York. In the fifth inning, he gunned down Nick Swisher at the plate, had a 2-run homer in the sixth, and had a game-winning single in the tenth. Last Friday, Josh Hamilton may have had the best game ever for a Ranger. Playing centerfield, he had a diving catch early in the game and then in the sixth jumped at the fence to take away a Boston homer (#1 play of the day on ESPN). He was 4 for 5 at the plate, scored four times, had a home run and a stolen base. He will be hard to beat for the American League MVP.

The Chuck Greenberg-Nolan Ryan ownership wasted no time this last week in making the ballpark atmosphere a better one for the fans. They slashed prices for the remainder of the year. Parking went from $12 to $10, many concession prices dropped, bottled beer from $7 to $6, 22 oz souvenir beer went from $7.75 to $7 and hot chocolate (if ever needed) from $3 to $1. T-shirts will now be thrown out to all levels of the stadium, the radio broadcast will be played on the concourses and new stuff will be added to the video boards. It feels great to finally have owners who care about the fans.

This week starts out on the road against a tough Tampa Bay Ray team and then to Baltimore for a four game series. Last time we faced the Orioles, they swept us here in four games, but this is a more focused team now.