Which is the real Odor — the 2017 version or the since-May 25 version?

The Texas Rangers headed to the Bay Area on Sunday evening for a week of baseball against the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants.

They’re mixing in an off day Thursday after the three-game series against the A’s, who, for those who haven’t been paying attention to the top of the American League West standings, are one game behind the Houston Astros.

The reigning world champion, here-to-stay, dynasty-a-comin’ Astros.

In fairness, the Astros are missing Jose Altuve, the reigning AL MVP, and George Springer, the reigning World Series MVP, and have a superior starting rotation compared to the A’s.

The A’s have the edge in defense and bullpen.

Here’s another edge the A’s have: They have six games, all at home, remaining vs. the last-place Rangers. The Astros played the Rangers for the last time this season July 29.

Hmmm.

Here’s some Rangers Reaction from Sunday’s 4-2 victory.

1. Thursday will mark three months since Rougned Odor went 0 for 4 against the New York Yankees to drop his average to .171.

As of Sunday, his average sits at .279 and he has hit 14 of his 15 homers on the season since May 25. No. 15 on Sunday won the game for the Rangers.

It was a three-run blast with one out in the seventh inning as rain fell hard enough to lead to a postponement one batter later. It gave Odor 23 RBIs on the month, tying Nomar Mazara for the high in any month this season.

The Rangers have nine more games in August.

But this Odor stretch as been more than just a month, or two months since he an eventful June night in Kansas City that cost him a game the next day. Since May 21 he has a .310/.387/.545 slash line.

That’s three months’ worth of Odor being a really good hitter. That’s not a full season, and everyone would like to see him do this again next season.

But his 2017 showing, when he batted .204, was over a full season, and it’s looking more and more like an aberration.

2. The Rangers have nine more games against the Angels, who without Mike Trout are pretty hard to watch. For every frustrated Rangers fan out there, just be glad you’re not an Angels fan.

They have the best player on the planet, and he’s played in three postseason games. Granted, the Angels have a World Series title, but they have also gone down in flames trying to win another.

This is the team that signed Albert Pujols, C.J. Wilson and Josh Hamilton over back-to-back off-seasons. All that money has produced zero postseason victories, and Pujols, who is still a threat at the plate but not like he once was, is still owed $87 million the next three seasons.

Their issue has been their pitching staff, the rotation some seasons and the bullpen in others. The rotation has been decimated by injuries this season, including to their top two pitchers Garrett Richards and Shohei Ohtani.

The Rangers can relate.

But the starting pitching Sunday was decent, as Yovani Gallardo allowed two runs in six innings for the Rangers and Jamie Barria allowed one run (two the first two batters) in five innings.

Gallardo rebounded from his last time, when he allowed four runs in 3 1/3 innings. He allowed only six hits Sunday, with a walk and six strikeouts, and manager Jeff Banister said that it was Gallardo’s best stuff since joining the Rangers in June.

Included was a jam in the sixth, runners at first and second with one after an intentional walk to Ohtani gave Pujols a chance. Gallardo got the future Hall of Famer to fly to left in a matchup of former National League Central foes.

“I’ve faced Pujols quite a lot back when he was in St. Louis,” Gallardo said. “It’s definitely not easy facing a guy like that. We have history. We know each other, so we’d rather take that chance than a guy I’ve faced twice.”

Gallardo still had to get Andrelton Simmons, and he did. It almost cost him his jaw, though, as he got a glove up just in time to knock down Simmons’ line back to the mound.

Gallardo got the out and a bruise on his left hand, but the bruise won’t prevent him from doing what he loves to do almost as much as pitching. The guy can hit, and he’ll get the chance next weekend at San Francisco.

“Believe that,” he said.

Matt Moore, Cory Gearrin and Jose Leclerc took care of the rest, giving the Rangers three wins in the four-game series and dropping the Angels to 63-63, 13 games out of the AL West lead and 9 1/2 games out of the second wild card.

And still no Trout.

3. More bad news for Yu Darvish, who on Sunday left a rehab start after one inning and will have an MRI exam as soon as possible. The discomfort he felt was similar to what he felt during his last rehab outing June 24.

He came back to Texas after that one for a visit with Rangers physician Dr. Keith Meister. The buzz later that day and week was that he told people he missed the area and the Rangers.

There’s one way to fix that.

Darvish can opt out of his six-year, $126 million contract with the Chicago Cubs after next season. He would be forfeiting a ton of money, but if peace of mind matters to him, he can look elsewhere.

The Rangers, meanwhile, will be on the verge of opening Globe Life Field. While their core group of position players should be more developed by then, their starting rotation will still need arms.

The Rangers wouldn’t want to pay Darvish anywhere near what the Cubs would be paying him or for the numbers of years he would have left, but the Rangers would need an arm and a gate draw for those days after their new home loses its new ballpark smell.

He and general manager Jon Daniels could discuss it over another dinner date.

The hope here is that Darvish is healthy and pitches in the postseason for the Cubs for all the years of his contract. The reality, though, is looking like something entirely different.

This story was originally published August 19, 2018 at 7:11 PM.