The cumulative nature of baseball standings masked the fact that while the Rangers were the dominant team in all of baseball during the season’s first quarter, for the remainder of the year, they were not much better than league average. In its first 40 games, Texas played .600 baseball and outscored its opponents by a whopping 80 runs. However, over the remaining 121 games, their run differential was just 21 runs. Meanwhile, over those same last three quarters of the season, the eventual division champion Oakland A’s outscored their opponents by 113 runs. The final standings and the drama of the last series of the season suggested an unlikely champion but the fact is the Rangers were convincingly outplayed by Oakland for a majority of the season.