The Rangers found themselves on both side of the “sweep”spectrum this past week

After a day off to start the week, the Texas Rangers accomplished a series sweep of the Oakland Athletics for the first time this year.

Sure, it was only a two-game set, but hey, us Ranger fans will take whatever positive news we can in these present days. The two games on Tuesday and Wednesday against the A’s included some great baseball. It felt like a home run derby out there. There were a combined nine home runs over the two games including three from Jurickson Profar and one from Robinson Chirinos on his 34th birthday.

Who would’ve thought this Rangers/A’s series would be a home run derby!? #TexasRangers

— Darien Clark (@DarienClark5) June 7, 2018

Apart from the offense, Bartolo Colon was on the mound Wednesday still looking for his win to tie Juan Marichal for the most victories by a Dominican born starting pitcher. Did he accomplish this incredible milestone? Yes, he certainly did while going five innings with six hits and two earned runs. The bullpen then followed him allowing zero runs over the remaining four innings.

Out goes Oakland, in comes the defending champion, Houston Astros.

It was a four-game series that looked promising as the Rangers were coming off a hot hitting streak against the A’s. However, as we all know the Astros are a completely different team and the Rangers encountered that first hand at the end of the week.

I’m not one to discuss the negative, but the Rangers really got hit with bad news this week.

The Astros series sweep on the Rangers ended with a go-ahead balk call on Keone Kela. That brought in the winning run in the top of the ninth inning. Or as Levi Weaver of the Athletic put it, “From the villains of yesterday’s loss where the umpires basically try to gaslight everyone with their J.R. Smith-level of recall of the moment. You know, standard umpire nonsense.”

The Texas Rangers still own the all-time record in the Lone Star Series at 106-75.

The Rangers finished on both sides of the sweep spectrum, completing the week at 2-4. Which now brings their total record to 27-41 and fifth in the AL West.

In other news, Doug Fister hit the 10-day DL with a strained right knee. In place of him, Hanser Alberto has been called up. In all due respect, hopefully, Alberto won’t be up long, because we have our starting shortstop scheduled for a rehab game tonight (Monday) in Double-A Frisco. Assuming that all goes well there, we can see Elvis Andrus back in the Rangers lineup early next week.