Where do they go from here?

The Texas Rangers just completed murderer’s row within their schedule. During the last 25 games, Texas played six against the Yankees, three against the Red Sox, four against the Blue Jays, three against the Tigers and three against the Dodgers, the team who currently sports the best record in all of baseball.

Despite 19 of the 25 being against teams with winnings records, Texas managed to hang tough by going 12-13 during that stretch. Though Texas’ division lead has been trimmed to two games, there is good news on the horizon: 8 of their next 11 games will be against teams with sub-.500 records.

The schedule for the next two weeks features three against the Astros, three against the Giants, three versus the Diamondbacks and another three-game set against the Padres. Their combined records are 118-133.

Texas needs to take advantage of the next two weeks because, after their series with San Diego, Texas will face another tough scheduling challenge including three against the Angels, four against the Mariners, three against the Twins and three against the Red Sox.

With Josh Hamilton out for an extended period of time and Frankie Francisco unavailable until Saturday (at the earliest), the Rangers will have to overcome some adversity. But over the next month, Texas will have the opportunity to establish themselves as legitimate contenders or, if things do not go well, they could once again prove that this isn’t their year.

It’s going to be fun to watch and whether they play well or not, it's fun to talk about possible contention in June rather than “wait ‘til next year” discussions.