The Rangers have reached the 150-game mark in the season and technically they are still alive in both the AL West and the AL wild card races. Technically, yes. Realistically? Not so much.
Despite all that, there are still things worth paying attention to over the final 12 games. Here’s a dozen things worth paying attention to over these final dozen games:
1.90 wins: The Rangers now need to play .667 baseball (8-4) to reach the 90-win mark for only the fourth time in club history. At the start of the month, it looked likely. Now? It’s going to be really difficult. Nine of the final 12 games are on the road, including two more at Oakland, which just happens to be one of the hottest teams in the AL right now. Also, the Rangers are just 3-5 in Oakland this season. After three games against Tampa Bay in Arlington, they go to Los Angeles for four and Seattle for three. The Angels series may mean nothing by the time they get there, but Seattle is a different story.
2. Second place: Why is the trip to Seattle a different story? Because the Mariners, who won two of three from the Rangers in Texas at the start of this swoon, enter the day just 3.5 games back of the Rangers. If they can shave another two games off that lead in the next week, the final series of the season might come down to a battle for second in the West. Three weeks ago, was there any way you could imagine the Rangers falling to third? Now, that might take the shine off this otherwise fabulous year.
3. A 20-game winner: RHP Scott Feldman, who starts Thursday in Oakland, figures to also start Tuesday at Los Angeles and the season finale at Seattle on Oct. 4 if the Rangers keep him on his current schedule. Winning out would make him the fourth 20-game winner in club history, allowing him to join Ferguson Jenkins (25 in 1974), Kevin Brown (21 in 1992) and Rick Helling (20 in 1998). Feldman isn’t going to win the Cy Young award, but winning out might make him the first 20-game winner in MLB history who didn’t begin the season in his team’s rotation.
4. ERA Amendment: The Rangers arrived at the 150-game mark with a 4.31 ERA. If they can get through the next 12 games averaging less than five earned runs allowed, they should finish with an ERA below 4.50. It would mark the first time they’ve gone below 4.50 since Nolan Ryan retired. The Rangers finished Ryan’s final season, 1993, with a 4.28 mark then moved into Rangers Ballpark. In the new stadium, they haven’t had anything less than a 4.53 ERA (2004).
5. The 30-30 Club: 2B Ian Kinsler entered September with 28 homers and 28 stolen bases and becoming the second player in Rangers history to reach 30-30 seemed a foregone conclusion. It’s not such a foregone conclusion anymore. Kinsler has one homer and one steal in the first three weeks of the month. He hasn’t homered since Sept. 1 and stole his first base of the month on Sept. 19. He’s sitting at 29-29 right now. Kinsler has three RBIs to get to 80 for the year with 89 runs scored. Of the 53 30-30 seasons in history, only eight have happened with fewer than 90 RBIs and only 10 with fewer than 100 runs. Only three have included less than 90 RBIs and less than 100 runs.
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Story courtesy of Evan Grant with http://insidecorner.dmagazine.com
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