The Texas Rangers didn’t get the finish they wanted Sunday, but they still left Baltimore with a series win in hand. Now comes the part of the schedule that should tell the real story.
At 59-59 and still chasing Houston in the AL West, Texas is heading into a seven-game, seven-day road trip that lines up with two teams that are already out of the playoff race: the Los Angeles Angels and the Athletics. On paper, this is the kind of stretch a contender has to cash in on. In practice, the Rangers have not made life easy on themselves inside the division.
They open with four games in Anaheim starting Monday, then move on to West Sacramento for three against the Athletics. The Angels sold off key pieces at the trade deadline, while the Athletics held onto theirs because of a young roster that has plenty of talent, even if it isn’t fully ready yet.
The opportunity is obvious. Texas can make up ground on the Astros against clubs it should handle. The warning signs are just as obvious.
The Rangers are 16-20 against AL West opponents overall, and the numbers get rougher away from home. They’re 4-12 against division teams on the road, have dropped their last six road games against AL West opponents, and have lost 10 of their last 11 road division games.
That makes the Angels series especially important. Texas needs it for momentum before heading to Oakland, and it also has a fresh memory of how poorly things went in Anaheim in late May, when the Rangers lost all three road games there.
Overall, they’re 2-4 against the Angels this season, with a 2-1 record at home. The clubs meet again for three more games in Texas next week.
The Athletics are a different kind of problem. The Rangers already spent four games in Sacramento in April and split the series.
At that point, the A’s were one of the hotter teams in the American League. They’ve since fallen out of the race, but the lineup still has enough young pop to make this trip uncomfortable.
With 44 games left, Texas is past the point of shrugging off wins and losses. The Rangers need to take care of business against the Angels and Athletics, and at the very least they need to come home with a winning record.
In Other News...
Jordan Montgomery's Return Left Rangers Watching One Late-Season Question
Jordan Montgomery was back on a big-league mound for Texas for the first time since the end of the 2024 season, and the return came with the kind of work-in-progress feel the Rangers have been bracing for. In four innings against Baltimore, he gave up three earned runs, a reminder that even a familiar arm can take some time to settle in after a long layoff. For a club still trying to sort through its late-season picture, getting Montgomery back in the mix mattered as much as the line score.
Skip Schumaker did not sound discouraged afterward, pointing to the possibility of more coming as Montgomery builds back up. There is still other movement on the horizon, too, with catcher Danny Jansen expected to begin a rehab assignment soon and Jack Leiter likely to start one this week. For Texas, the bigger question now is not just whether Montgomery can round into form, but how quickly the roster around him starts to look more complete. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Are Betting On New Bullpen Arms To Fix A Lingering Problem
The Rangers moved on from Chris Martin on Aug. 8, ending a short and frustrating run for the veteran right-hander after he was designated for assignment and cleared waivers. Injuries had complicated his season from the start, and the results never matched the clubs hopes, with Martin struggling to a 9.00 ERA over 14 innings before his release.
Now Texas is trying to patch a familiar bullpen gap with a different look, turning to Chase Silseth and Peyton Gray for right-handed middle relief work. It is a low-profile move on paper, but for a Rangers staff that has been searching for dependable answers in the middle innings, these are the kinds of innings that can quietly shape a stretch run. [Read more 🡒]