ANAHEIM, Calif. – That’s how it has to be.
If the Rangers want to accomplish this task and advance to the postseason for the first time in seven years, they will have to do it alone. You cannot count on help from elsewhere. Get it done in Seattle. Win once in the next four days and you’ll be in.
On Wednesday, the Rangers were on the brink of the playoffs with a clear 5-0 win over Los Angeles. Her next win, which would be her 90th, at least gets her into the dance. Seattle, which lost to Houston on Wednesday, can’t win more than 89 games – and only if the Mariners beat the Rangers. Win two and the Rangers can win the division against Houston, which can’t win more than 90.
Put it this way: The Rangers have a tempting opportunity. You could potentially host champagne-soaked celebrations on consecutive evenings. If they win on Thursday, they will secure at least one wild card. Then they could go away and repeat with another win on Friday (or a win in one of the final two games instead).
“It just kind of fits,” resident philosopher Nathaniel Lowe said Wednesday. “This team and this park have given us the most problems since I wore this uniform. We have to finish the work there. That is nice.”
More on the aesthetics of the playoff race in a moment. But first: irony. The team, which invested $250 million in pitching upgrades over the winter, arrived at this point Wednesday after seven shutout innings from the man who had already been all but eliminated from the rotation before spring training began: Dane Dunning . Dunning won his 12th game to take the lead from Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi has a chance to win No. 13 this weekend in Seattle, but no one will be able to catch Dunning in the innings. He will lead the staff with 169.1.
Manager Bruce Bochy called Dunning the “MVP” of the pitching staff, which is saying something considering Dunning wasn’t sure he would make the team after spring training, behind Jacob deGrom, Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney, Martín Perez , Jon Gray and Jake Odorizzi. He only moved into the rotation in May.
“It just says a lot about the man,” Bochy said. “He didn’t miss a beat, regardless of the role. You look at the MVP of this staff; He was that guy.”
Even more ironic: Jose Leclerc, who was eliminated a month into the season, finished ninth. He didn’t make a save as the Rangers scored three runs early in the inning behind home runs by Evan Carter and Marcus Semien. But Leclerc proves that what goes around comes. He’s emerging as the man most likely to be asked to save a postseason game.
Now about beauty and its simplicity. The season boils down to four games. The Rangers face one of the teams they are chasing in both the division and wild card races. They have a rare opportunity: They could clinch a playoff trip, celebrating and eliminating a team that was one step ahead of them in the AL West hierarchy. With two wins, they secured, among other things: a first-round bye in the playoffs and home-field advantage for the AL Division Series as the No. 2 seed. Then again, the Rangers have been in this position before. See 2012, the Oakland A’s and a fly ball dropped by Josh Hamilton in the sun.
The Rangers can also put more recent traumatic memories in their rearview mirror. As a current Ranger with more playing experience in a Texas uniform than anyone else, Lowe knows his story. From 2020 to 2022, the Rangers posted a 4-22 record in Seattle. During this time they won more often in Houston. And the defeats were particularly frustrating: of the 22 defeats, eight were by one run and six were by two. Seattle had 23 walkoff wins during that three-year period; four of them were against the Rangers.
The Rangers turned around the results earlier this year, winning two of three games in Seattle in May. But they were hardly convincing. Since the Rangers were playing without Corey Seager at the time, they won two of three games. But both came in one go. Additionally, the offense struck out 38 times and walked just twice.
They won behind strong pitching performances from Gray, Eovaldi and Dunning. The starting rotation hasn’t been as sharp since then. The Rangers will start Jordan Montgomery, acquired from St. Louis at the trade deadline, Eovaldi and Gray in the first three games. After Gray ended his start on Monday with wrist pain, he was declared fit to compete. Seattle is still undecided on Thursday’s starter, Logan Gilbert.
The Rangers certainly recognize the importance of their starts. They have taken additional measures to maintain normal schedules. All three left Anaheim early to fly to Seattle. It’s not uncommon for a starter to be ahead of his team. But starters for three days? That’s a bit extreme.
“They’re not doing anything to us here,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “It just makes sense to keep them on schedule and let them travel together.”
The Rangers also got good news about Seager, who left Tuesday’s game with a bruised right forearm. He returned to the lineup on Wednesday. The bad news: Seattle isn’t Seager’s favorite travel destination. Maybe he doesn’t want to overshadow his big brother Kyle, who spent his entire career with the Mariners, but he’s just a .132 hitter in Seattle.
This weekend he can erase bad memories by spraying champagne.
“We don’t want to get involved in anything,” said Bochy. “You have to go out and win games to make it. We all knew a while ago that the two series against them were going to be huge. And they were.”
It’s all in front of the Rangers’ eyes. Win and they’re in.
“We definitely have some momentum right now,” Marcus Semien said. “And that’s a real thing.”
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