The last week of the regular season will certainly come and will come with Little Stakes for the Texas Rangers, starting with the opening of Tuesday on their series of three games against the Minnesota Twins in Arlington, Texas.
But it shouldn’t be like this. A week ago, the Rangers went up high after winning eight of their first 11 games in September to return to the American League race. They fired in the two Houston games for the last place in the playoff series.
Since then, the Rangers (79-77) have been in free fall. They are heading for Tuesday’s shock on a sequence of seven defeats of seven consecutive defeats. The Rotation of Texas, which was at the top of the MLB in the era for most of the year, allowed more points won (22) than its offense did not mark (19) during the in progress.
“No one could have planned to lose seven after the way we played,” said the launcher from Texas, Merrill Kelly. “It’s a kind of terrible funny part on baseball.”
The Rangers Trail Boston by six games for Joker’s second berth and drag Houston and the Cleveland Guardians by five games for Joker’s last point. Each team has six games to play, creating a theoretical path but beyond the path that would require Texas to win and two of the three other teams above to lose.
“It’s baseball,” said Texas manager Bruce Bochy. “It is difficult to explain what is going on, but it has happened to us. You enter these funks, and it seems that you can do nothing good. This is the case here.”
At least, the Rangers took their chase in the playoffs deeply in September. Minnesota (67-89) was eliminated mathematically on September 13, but twins mainly abandoned the campaign in July when they moved 10 players on the deadline.
The Twins go to Arlington on the heels of a 6-2 victory against Cleveland on Sunday in their home final. The victory achieved a sequence of five consecutive defeats for Minnesota, which disappeared from 5-15 in September.
“It’s good for us to finish (at home) on a better note,” said Brooks Lee, short of the Twins. “There are still six games, so yes, I think it’s a cool little cherry on the top for the Homesh. Now we have to continue.”
The Rangers kept their pitch decision until announced on Monday that left-handed Patrick Corbin (7-10, 4.33 ERA) will start Tuesday’s match. Minnesota will give the ball to right-handed Zebby Matthews (4-6, 5.97).
Corbin has a 0-1 file in September, but presented solid projections during its last two departures. He granted a deserved race on nine stories in 10 combined rounds against astros and New York dishes before being scored for three points (two deserved) during an appearance in relief on Friday against Miami.
It is 2-2 with an MPM of 6.65 in four career starts against twins.
Matthews has a 0-2 file with an MPM of 9.88 in three departures of September, and his last outing was a disaster. Faced with New York Yankees last Tuesday at home, he gave nine points on 11 strokes and two walks in just three rounds in a match, the Twins lost 10-9.
Matthews never faced the Rangers in his 24 MLB game career.
– field level media
