The Texas Rangers scored two runs but the Minnesota Twins scored ten runs.
There was a moment from a camera phone video recording where the Rangers returned to the field to salute the home fans after Thursday’s final game at The Shed this season, and as they departed one of the players yelled “We’ll be back!”
That was a pretty bold declaration, I figured. Maybe they were unaware of
the standings or tiebreaker scenarios. Not much of a scoreboard watcher, perhaps. Maybe they were held captive by the moment and forgot that the team had just lost a series at home to the National League East cellar dwellers with everything in front of them. Maybe they meant next season, I don’t know. Even that is perhaps against the odds.
For the Rangers to return to the field at The Shed they would need to win the American League West, of which they came into the evening tied with the Houston Astros. The only problem is they didn’t beat the Astros more than they lost to them this summer so they were essentially behind Houston for the division crown with three games to play. We don’t do Game 163s anymore.
To overtake Houston, the Rangers reasonably needed to sweep Minnesota as losing a game would mean the Astros would essentially have to lose at least two of three to the homeless Athletics over the weekend. It’s a rough ask to count on the team ahead of you to basically drop a series to what is pretty much a minor league squad playing in a minor league stadium. Then again, the Rangers themselves did that twice in two tries this year.
So tonight’s game was crucial, they all are, but the Rangers had Jacob deGrom on the mound needing to set the tone for a series that could indeed send them back to playing baseball in Arlington if they finally showed up big even in the season’s dying moments.
Instead, they lost 10-2.
The Rangers did open with the fire of a club that was captured calling their return home by scoring a couple off of Minnesota starter Joe Ryan in the first inning. A 2-0 lead and deGrom made it through the first inning without allowing runs? Things were looking promising.
However, in the bottom of the second inning, the Rangers finally collapsed under the immense weight of their mediocrity. As deGrom was allowing six runs while the Twins batted around, it was announced that Josh Jung was exiting the game after being hit in the wrist by Ryan in the top of the first during Texas’ scoring rally.
The Rangers have been winning the games they’ve won over the last few weeks almost exclusively on the back of Jung and his bat. Without him for much of the second half, the team treaded water at the best of times and sunk most of the time. It was about as ill an omen as you could get.
By the end of things, deGrom allowed eight runs in four innings. Is deGrom pitching with some nagging injury while trying to carry this team he believes in to the playoffs? Probably. That doesn’t really matter right now as we sit here. There’s been six months of Texas Rangers baseball. They had perhaps the easiest path in league history to making this final series a coronation instead of do-or-die only to crater regardless both all summer and now.
Anyhow, deGrom’s season ERA will end at 4.20, or, per Shawn McFarland, placing him 35th out of the 45 qualified starting pitchers this season. Which yeah, that’s both bad and disappointing but hey, at least he qualified!
Sure, the Rangers aren’t eliminated yet but that almost feels like a threat more than anything else. You might actually have to watch more of this! And they might have to put it on national TV and advertise it as postseason baseball!
The Rangers will be back at home this year but it will probably be on their couches this October unless we get some miracles on the West Coast, as undeserving as that would be.
Player of the Game: Trevor Williams not only didn’t allow a run in two innings tonight, he was also the most recent late addition to the team earlier this month so he wasn’t around very much this season so that’s a pretty big win for him personally.
Up Next: The Rangers and Twins will play the second game of this series with Texas trying to potentially make game No. 162 matter. They haven’t announced a starter. Minnesota will opt for RHP Bailey Ober.
The Saturday afternoon first pitch from Target Field is scheduled for 3:10 pm CDT and will be telecast via the Rangers Sports Network.
