Texas Rangers Keep Rolling, Fall in Power Rankings

The Texas Rangers head into the last month-and-a-half of the season staring at their first playoff berth in six years.

The Rangers (72-49) lead the American League West, are 12-3 in August and have won five consecutive series. Texas is playing its best ball at the right time, and need to be with the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners doing the same.

Still, the latest MLB Power Rankings from ESPN’s panel of baseball experts dropped the Rangers one spot to No. 4, trailing the Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers, who leapfrogged Texas.

Per ESPN:

Texas keeps gobbling up series wins while maintaining a slim lead over Houston in the AL West. Last week was no exception as the Rangers won two of three from Oakland, then two of three from San Francisco, before putting the hammer down (12-0) on the Angels on Monday. In that game, Max Scherzer had a season high 11 strikeouts, giving him 26 in three starts for his new team. And he allowed only one hit, becoming the first Ranger in a decade to strike out at least 10 with one or fewer hits allowed.

Scherzer has quickly become a must-see with every turn in rotation, and with good reason.

It’s not the first time Scherzer has had midseason success after being traded. In 2021, after moving to the Dodgers, he ended the season going 7-0 in 11 starts with a 1.98 ERA. The Rangers’ schedule is no picnic the rest of the way, but they’ve thwarted every attempt by the Astros to overtake them so far.

Speaking of the Astros, the defending champs check in at No. 6. The rest of the AL West includes the hard-changing Mariners (10), fading Angels (20) and cellar-dwelling Oakland Athletics (30).

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