I can’t think of a more fitting recent one example of a roller coaster during the regular baseball season than this year’s Texas Rangers. During the month of August, the Rangers were seen as the American League’s top contender to make the World Series, and a large portion of their fan base threw in the towel as they looked bad against average teams at best. Texas started hot, cooled off and got hot again – six players made it to the finals All Star Gaam grid; And five of them started – bad, turned red hot, snarled through a 12-for-10 on the mondo-dook-o-meter, and are now one game away from beating the Blue Jays, one of their main competitors for a Wild Card spot, in Canada.
Not to mention, after throwing away the 3.5 game leadership in AL West The Rangers had the cheating Astros and the 7.5 game lead over the third-place Mariners they had at this point a month ago, mainly due to losing 16 of 20 between August 16 and September 6. final five, with another round of manageable matchups coming down the pike. Aside from tonight’s game in Toronto, the Rangers have one opponent left on their schedule that doesn’t hover around .500 or worse. Texas’ remaining seven games against Seattle, including a four-game series in the Pacific Northwest to close out the season, will likely determine both teams’ playoff fates, or lack thereof.
The Rangers’ current turnaround was unexpected because before heading north of the border, the Blue Jays were not slumping, winning eight of their last 10 games. It was two teams going in opposite directions and then using a double reverse uno card. All of this comes while big Texas acquisition Max Scherzer has done nothing for the team and was booed in Queens during the team’s recent series against the Mets. Than Scherzer is injured on Tuesday night and is probably done for the year because the Rangers can’t have nice things or flaming bags of poop. How this journey will end for a resurgent team under a first-year manager who is still somehow underwhelming will be one of the most interesting stories in baseball in recent years.
It wouldn’t shock anyone if the Rangers made the playoffs. At their best, they are clearly one of the best teams in baseball. It wouldn’t shock anyone if either Texas missed the playoffs, because in the worst case it is as effective as washing your hands with mustard. But it’s still better than Oakland with those yellow soaked (Rollie) fingers. It’s anyone’s guess which version of the Rangers will appear on any given night. Through three games in Toronto, Texas has outscored the Blue Jays 26-7. Against Houston earlier this month, the Rangers were defeated 39-10 in a 3-game sweep. It’s hard to know where to gauge expectations for the team because blatant examples of both were so easy to see and analyze.
I still have a hard time believing the Rangers won’t be in the playoffs even if they are a game back from Houston in the AL West and just one game ahead of Toronto in the Wild Card standings. There’s just too much quality in Arlington compared to the rest of the American League to believe otherwise. That is, if the Rangers are good, they have so much potential and have shown that they cannot be trusted.