Three days before Major League Baseball's July 31 trade deadline, the Rangers were dead. Deader than dead. They were five games below .500 and eight games behind the American League West-leading Houston Astros. But in the succeeding six weeks, the team went out and got the best pitcher available on the trade market (Cole Hamels) and caught up with the Astros. Despite being beset by injuries — the team's best starting pitcher, Yu Darvish, won't start a game this year — the Rangers have given DFW baseball fans one of the sport's tastiest delicacies: competitive, tense games throughout the last month of the season. No one saw it coming, but new manager Jeff Banister and his players have made it happen.