Rangers Must Dominate AL West Bottom Feeders on Critical Road Trip

The Texas Rangers have a chance to make up some real ground in the AL West this week. But they’ll have to buck a season-long trend to do it.

Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Sunday was not the ending that the Texas Rangers wanted, but they still walked away with a series win over the Baltimore Orioles.

The Rangers lost after taking the first two games of the series. To be fair to Texas, which is chasing Houston in the AL West, the Orioles are playing for something too. They are only a couple games behind the Rangers to the final American League wild card berth.

But Texas (59-59) hits the road to face two teams that have nothing more to play for. The Los Angeles Angels and the Athletics are out of the AL playoff race. The Angels sold off key assets at the trade deadline. The Athletics hung on to theirs because they have one of the best young rosters in baseball. It's just not mature yet.

For the Rangers, this road trip is filled with opportunity, a chance to make up significant ground on the Astros against teams that they should be better than.

But recent history says the Rangers are about to run a gauntlet.

The Trouble with The AL West Road

Texas Rangers shortstop Ezequiel Duran. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Rangers will spend four games in Anaheim starting on Monday against the Angels. After that, it's off to West Sacramento to face the Athletics for three games. It's a seven-game, seven-day stretch. The road in the AL West has not been kind to the Rangers this season. They'll have to buck that trend if they want to make up ground on the Astros.

Entering the trip the Rangers are 16-20 against their AL West rivals. It gets worse away from home. Texas is just 4-12 against AL West teams on the road. It gets even worse. Texas has lost its last six road games against AL West teams and 10 of its last 11 road division games.

The Rangers need a good series against the Angels for a couple of reasons. First, they need to build some momentum going into the Athletics series. Second, the Rangers lost all three of their road games in Anaheim when they visited there in late May. They are also 2-4 against the Angels this season, with a 2-1 home record. Texas gets three more home games against the Angels next week.

Texas did a four-game stretch in Sacramento in April, as they split the set with the Athletics. Back then, the Athletics were one of the hotter teams in the American League. Now they've slipped out of the playoff race. But it's a dangerous young lineup that can make the weekend a nightmare for the Rangers.

The time to avoid overreacting or underreacting to a win or a loss is done for the Rangers. They have 44 games left in the season and each one counts. The Angels and Athletics are teams the Rangers should beat and at a minimum they need to come home with a winning record.