Texas went to the Big Apple needing a solid series against the Mets to stay in the playoff hunt. They accomplished that.
Having taken two of three in New York, the Rangers go to Houston where they likely need to, at a minimum, win another two out of three to keep their playoff hopes from ending up on life support.
Texas finds itself vying for the A.L. West title with Seattle and Houston, and for the final two Wild Card spots with those two teams along with Boston (who Texas trails by three games) and Cleveland
(who Texas is a half-game up on). Boston lost two of three at home to the New York Yankees this past weekend, but the rest of the teams Texas is competing against did quite well. Houston took two of three in Atlanta, Seattle finished off a four game home sweep of the hapless Angels, and Cleveland swept the ChiSox at home.
I have previously alluded to the finish of the 2013 season in talking about how the final couple of weeks could shape up for the teams fighting for the final few playoff spots this year. In 2013, the Rangers had an ugly 2-11 stretch in the first half of September that nearly knocked them out of contention, then went 10-3 over their final 13 games, including their last seven in a row. Unfortunately, they were chasing Cleveland, who went 15-2 to end the season, including winning their final ten games, and the Rays, who finished 13-5, including winning 8 their last 10. Tampa losing two of their last three meant they faced the Rangers in a one game playoff and, well, we know how that went.
This year we have Seattle showing extreme streakiness. The M’s had a 10-1 stretch beginning at the end of July, then went 6-15 over their next 21. After a fan hired an Etsy witch to put good mojo on the M’s, the team has won nine in a row, and is now 1 up in the West. Seattle is three up on Texas though, as you know, they hold the tiebreaker, which means that they are effectively four up on Texas at this point.
Cleveland lost 10 of 12 in mid-August, including being swept by Texas in a series that started the Rangers’ turnaround, won four in a row, lost four of six, and have since won 9 of their last 10, putting them even with the Rangers in the loss column, and potentially setting the stage for some high drama when Texas goes to Cleveland for the final series of the teams’ seasons.
And of course, the Rangers have been on their improbable run with their injury stricken club, going 16-5 in their last 21 games, including a pair of six game winning streaks, the most recent of which was broken yesterday with the loss to the Mets.
This week is a very big week for the A.L. West race, as the Astros host the Rangers in the first part of the week and the Mariners this weekend. Houston can put themselves in the driver’s seat with a solid homestand, or they can…not put themselves in the driver’s seat.
I hesitate to ever say that a team “needs to” or “must” win at least X games before the final week or so of the season, but given the playoff landscape and the fact that Texas is effectively four games back of Seattle, Texas really needs to take at least two of three in Houston. Winning just one game against Houston would give the Rangers’ the tiebreaker against the Astros, but would also leave the Rangers three back of Houston with nine to play, which would mean hoping for Seattle to do major league this weekend and then for the Astros to falter in their West Coast trip to Sacramento and Anaheim to end the season. Getting swept by the Astros would put Texas five back of Houston and mean the Rangers would need a miracle to make the postseason.
The positive thing is that Texas will not be facing the Astros’ two best starting pitchers, Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez, in this series. Texas has Jack Leiter, Merrill Kelly and Jacob deGrom expected to go, and those three are probably the Rangers’ three best starting pitchers currently. Two of three would put the Rangers a game behind Houston and holding the tiebreaker. A sweep…well, that would be great, but let’s not think about that too much just yet.
As for the rest of the competition in the first part of this week, Seattle is playing three in Kansas City against a Royals team that is sitting at .500. Boston has three at home against the Swingin’ A’s. Cleveland plays three in Detroit.
It is an exciting time.
