Texas Rangers Week 25 Recap: Below .500... again

Season record: 74-77

Week 25 record: 2-4

Series record: 18-18, 12 splits

The week started out great for the Texas Rangers, winning a series against a winning team, but ended terribly, getting swept by a division rival who always seems to get the best of the Rangers.

While the Rangers lost the first game of the week, against the Tampa Bay Rays, they managed to win the next two, taking the series and beating a likely playoff team team. The first series they’ve one against a team above .500 since the middle of May, when they took the series from the St. Louis Cardinals. (In between these two series, the Rangers have had a number of four game series splits against winning teams such as Houston, Cleveland, and Boston.)

But while the Rangers were riding that momentum into the weekend series against the Oakland A’s, Oakland was riding their own momentum from a four game series win in Houston. As it turned out, Oakland, currently on pace to face the Rays in the Wild Card Game, came to Arlington and swept the Rangers.

Overall the Rangers did look respectable in Friday and Saturday’s games. The Rangers were showing effort in at-bats and on the bases and still looked completely in the game. The same can’t really be said for Sunday’s game. The Rangers lost 6-1, had just five hits (three of which belonged to Shin-Soo Choo), and managed to do nothing with the bases loaded and no outs in the eighth inning.

And so while that’s the last time we have to watch Khris Davis hit a home run in Globe Life Park, Rangers pitchers will have to face him again this weekend in Oakland after the Rangers play two in Houston Tuesday and Wednesday before coming back for the final home stand.