Texas Rangers clinging on to AL West heading into All Star break
As the ailing Texas Rangers limp into the All Star break, the Houston Astros seem to have begun to find answers as they narrow the gap at the top of the AL West.
Staying at the top of the AL West has always been a tall order for the Texas Rangers. While the Astros and Angels have struggled, the Rangers have been the highest-scoring team in MLB through April and May. But June and July was always going to be a fight.
While Houston and Los Angeles have had relatively smooth rides of the early summer, things are just ramping up in the Texas schedule, with both home and away series against the Astros, plus a three-game series against the effervescent Rays, and a series where they dropped two games to the Red Sox.
Houston, for their part, have managed to staunch the bleeding in their season, taking two of three from the Rangers and the Cardinals before them.
Now Texas is heading into a three-game series against the Nationals with only a two game lead on the Astros, slimmed down from five games just a fortnight ago.
The Rangers should still be clinging to the top spot in the AL West as we break for the Midsummer Classic, but when we come back, they still have to face the Dodgers, the Padres, and rematch both the Rays and Astros.
The famously-weakened Rangers bullpen is key to the issue. While the Texas bats have dropped in production to only 5.90 runs per nine innings, that is still enough to lead MLB in offense. But while the Rangers may still be able to put runs on the board, it is keeping opponents from scoring where they are struggling.
In the final game of the Astros series, the Rangers let a lead slip in the bottom of the ninth inning to lose 12-11. Texas have dropped six of their last eight games and in most of those, the trouble wasn’t with the Rangers bats. The final game of the Red Sox series was lost with the Rangers scoring six runs, which was not enough given that they gave up ten.