ARLINGTON -- It’s not mathematically over for the Rangers just yet. They won’t be able to clinch the American League West or be eliminated from contention until Friday at the earliest.
But inning by inning on Wednesday night, you could feel it slipping away.
The Rangers fell, 7-2, to the Mets at Globe Life Field, dropping their first series at home since July 20-22 against the White Sox.
Entering play on Wednesday, the Rangers and Astros were tied atop the American League West, though Houston owns the tiebreaker. No matter the record, the Rangers need to be one game better than the Astros if they want to see postseason baseball.
But it’s the Mets, officially eliminated from postseason contention already, playing spoiler in the AL West race.
“Frustration,” first baseman Jake Burger said when asked about the mood of the team. “Again, it sucks. We have to play perfectly the rest of the way. Obviously, we don't want to be in this situation where we're at now. But we have to go out there and try and get four wins and start tomorrow.”
Mets starter Nolan McLean was perfect through four innings against the Rangers, as the home ballclub could get literally nothing going offensively. Nothing much changed after that, even after Brandon Nimmo became Texas’ first baserunner with a leadoff single in the fifth inning.
McLean allowed five baserunners in that fifth inning, when the Rangers tied the game with a string of singles, a walk and a fielder’s choice mixed in there. He was perfect through all other frames, as was reliever Devin Williams in the eighth.
“We just couldn't get anything going,” said manager Skip Schumaker. “There is definitely frustration because they know they're better than what they've shown the last couple nights. That's the frustrating part for them. We know that they're working and trying to do the best they can. We just haven't produced enough to win.”
Meanwhile, the Rangers’ patchwork pitching staff tried to navigate its way through yet another tight game. Schumaker went to his bullpen after just 4 1/3 innings from starter Cody Bradford and immediately turned to his high-leverage relievers in Tyler Alexander, Chase Silseth and Jacob Latz.
With the leverage guys spent, and Robert Garcia unavailable, Schumaker opted to turn to Jordan Montgomery and Trevor Williams for the ninth.
It was the ever-steady Latz that gave up the dagger, a two-out solo homer by old friend Marcus Semien in the top of the eighth inning to break a 2-2 tie. A Brett Baty grand slam off of Williams in the top of the ninth blew the game wide open.
But despite Schumaker and the pitching coaches working through a minefield of a pitching staff this homestand, it’s been the offensive inconsistency that has assisted in the three-game losing streak. The Rangers collected just four hits on Wednesday, only one more than last night, making it the third time this season they’ve had four or fewer hits in consecutive games.
Texas was hitless between the fifth inning on Tuesday, all the way to the fifth inning on Wednesday.
And maybe most importantly, star shortstop Corey Seager has gone 0-for-13 during this three-game losing streak. You can’t win without your big dogs. He certainly qualifies.
“Obviously, [I haven’t been] as productive as [I'd] like to be right now,” said Seager after an 0-for-4 night on Wednesday. “As a team, you just have to have short-term memory. You got to move on. We can't dwell on the last couple days. Got to come ready to play tomorrow. Personally, the same. You'd like to be better down the stretch in these important games. Just gotta come back tomorrow and keep plugging.”
Seager, a man of few words, preached having a short-term memory multiple times. Despite this current three-game losing streak, he asserted that the clubhouse has come ready to play each day.
But the Rangers no longer control their own destiny. A trip to October will lie in the hands of the Astros, who finish their season with four in Oakland. Texas will have to handle business on their own and hope the rest works itself out.
“They know what's at stake,” Schumaker said of his team. “All 162 are big games, but obviously right now with where we're at in the race, we have to win games. We can't just scoreboard watch. We have to win our games to give ourselves a real shot at this.
“These are must-win games. That’s just the reality of it. It's not anything short of that. It is must-win time. We have to stay as positive as we can, as frustrating as it is tonight, and as frustrating as it was last night. We have to come back quickly tomorrow and do whatever we can to win and to give ourselves a shot. That's just the reality.”