HOUSTON — Bruce Bochy was operating on virtually no sleep Friday afternoon. A red-eye from the West Coast will wreak havoc on anyone.

A perfectly good time to hit him with hard questions and get the real answers.

So, Boch, about this weekend. Is this the season?

“I can’t say that,” he said. “Are they important? Sure, they are important. They are all important now.”

Bochy wouldn’t go any further because, well, a manager just won’t go there with nearly 70 games remaining. The calendar still says plenty of baseball to play, even if the upcoming trade deadline may shorten the window for declaring one’s intentions to a little more than two weeks.

If Bochy wasn’t exacting with the utmost urgency on Friday, his sleep-deprived team certainly seemed like it was, pounding out a clutch-hitting-filled 7-3 win over their AL West-leading rivals Houston. The Rangers had three two-out, run-scoring hits that accounted for six of their runs. That said more than the manager could possibly say. They seem to finally understand the assignment. Little bit late, but perhaps not too late.

The state of the sputtering offense has been the story of the season. Every game in which the offense busted out was seen as a potential starting point for the “run,” that has yet to materialize. Mostly because the offense shut down almost immediately.

This week has been different. Friday marked the fifth straight game in which the Rangers have scored at least five runs. It’s the first time they’ve had a streak of that length when it comes to offensive productivity. And it’s been fueled by two-out, clutch hits. The Rangers were 3 for 6 with runners in scoring position and two outs on Friday. They scored seven runs with two outs on Thursday in an 11-4 win over Anaheim. They are hitting an astounding .379 (22 for 58) with two outs and runners in scoring position since July 1.

“They are huge at-bats,” Bochy said. “They win games.”

On Friday, it began early. With the bases loaded against struggling Lance McCullers Jr. and two outs, Evan Carter thought he was hit by a pitch, which would have forced home a run. The Rangers gambled, used their challenge early and lost the replay review. He stepped back in, kept the at-bat alive by fouling off two more pitches, then lined a two-run single to right.

Two innings later, Jonah Heim drove a ball off the ball with two outs and two on to score two more. Only mistake he made was trying to stretch for three and was thrown out – maybe – to end the inning. We’ll never know since the Rangers had already used their challenge.

And in the seventh, after a leadoff walk to Corey Seager threatened to melt in the Houston humidity, Wyatt Langford clubbed a 93 mph fastball with gusto from Ryan Gusto, sending it deep into the Crawford Boxes in left for a two-run homer. Left the bat at 108 mph for those checking the radar.

“It’s happening with two outs more often, maybe, but I don’t think we’ve changed our two-out approach,” Langford said. “I just think we’re swinging better as a whole. Maybe pitchers are getting to two outs and thinking they are about to get out of it; that could be part of it. But I think we’re just doing a better job of swinging.”

And really, after a sleepless night in the air, nothing will help a manager sleep better than a little assurance that the offense in which he’s professed belief all year may now actually be proving him right.

“I’ve always believed; you’ve heard me keep saying it,” Bochy said. “But with the quality of at-bats that have been showing up the last five games, especially with men in scoring position, doing those little things and showing the fight, that’s what I’m really proud of.”

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