Despite recent struggles, the Texas Rangers are squarely in the middle of the playoff hunt entering this weekend’s series against the Cleveland Guardians.
Entering play Friday night, the Rangers are just half a game behind the Houston Astros in the American League West and hold the second wild card spot in the American League by one game over the Seattle Mariners after sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays in a four-game series.
“It’s good to come in here and get four games,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told the media after Thursday’s win. “We’ve been on the other end, so it’s good to come in here and play really good, crisp baseball.”
Texas took an early hold of first place in the American League West during the first week of the season and hung on until late August, but a recent 4-16 stretch allowed the Astros and the Mariners to catch up, while the Rangers fell into the wild card race.
Now, Texas has won six in a row. The offense has been clicking, and the pitching was spectacular in the Toronto series.
“I think we need to take it one day at a time,” first baseman Nathaniel Lowe told the media after Wednesday’s game. “We can’t look too far ahead. We have to go out and compete. … We’d like to come in 0-0 every day and go 1-0 when we go home.”
As the playoff race heats up, the Rangers will miss the presence of starting pitcher Max Scherzer, who has been ruled out for the season with a teres major strain and will likely not be ready for a potential postseason run.
“It’s tough for us as a unit, but we’ve got other good arms that are dying to get the ball,” Lowe explained. “We’ve got some guys who, as a team, we believe in. Maybe they haven’t performed as well as they want to at this point, but we’ve got some guys that are really chomping at the bit, so it’s going to be exciting down the stretch.”
Scherzer’s next start was supposed to be Sunday, and the team has yet to announce his replacement.
The Rangers (82-64) begin a three-game series against the Guardians (69-78) in Cleveland at 6:10 p.m. CT on Friday and will have four series remaining in the regular season. Texas’ regular season concludes on October 1 in Seattle.
