The Texas Rangers are one win away from turning a losing record into a postseason ticket.
After Saturday’s 6-2 win over the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis, Texas stayed alive for the final day of the regular season and kept its path to the American League West title open. The Rangers, now 80-81, enter Sunday still with a shot at reaching the playoffs for the first time since winning the World Series in 2023.
What has to happen next is still a moving target.
As of 10:10 p.m. Saturday, the Houston Astros were leading the Athletics 6-1 in the sixth inning. If that score holds, Texas would need to beat the Twins on Sunday and also need Houston to lose to the Athletics in the Astros’ season finale at 2:05 p.m. in Sacramento, California.
There is also a tiebreaker wrinkle. If the Rangers and Astros finish even, Houston would move on because it went 9-4 against Texas this season.
If the Athletics rally Saturday night, though, the Rangers’ job gets simpler: Texas would only need a win Sunday, or an Astros loss, to stay in the race.
Either way, the ending will be unusual. No matter which club comes out of the American League West, the division winner will have a record of .500 or worse, and that team will host the Chicago White Sox (83-78) in a best-of-three Wild Card Series beginning Tuesday.
Texas did its part Saturday behind a strong start from Nathan Eovaldi, who was back in the rotation and worked 4 1/3 innings. He allowed one run on four hits, struck out three and walked two. Robert Garcia (2-1) picked up the win in relief.
The Rangers jumped ahead with a four-run second inning. Danny Jansen started the burst with a single, and then Evan Carter, Alejandro Osuna and Brandon Nimmo followed with three straight doubles.
Jansen added a solo homer in the fourth, and Jake Burger also went deep with a solo shot in the fifth.
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