Rangers’ ace Cole Hamels strikes out Mike Zunino to end the sixth, minimizing the damage to just three runs.

Nineteen games left.

It’s always bittersweet when a season winds down, like shuttering a summer home for the winter. Or like what is happening to more and more concession stands in the Ballpark lately. They aren’t even bothering to open them. Apathy reigns.

But the way the last two Rangers seasons have ended, maybe this is the better way to end this one. Just end it.

No false hope. No heartbreaking Game 5 losses. No disappointment of being swept. No one strike away.

Not that I don’t want the Rangers to make the playoffs every year, but there’s only so many soul crushing defeats a fan can take.

The Rangers have lost five straight post-season chances. There was the pain of losing Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. The pain of being the first loser of a Wild Card Game in 2012. The pain of losing the tie-breaker to actually make it into the Wild Card game in 2013. The meltdown inning in 2015 in Toronto. And the meltdown series in 2016 in Toronto.

This team is nothing like those teams. It has zero chance against Houston or Cleveland. So what’s the point of putting fans through another episode of false hope? Especially with a team that is a million miles from World Series caliber.

Enjoy these final nineteen games. It’s sad. I hate seeing baseball end.

The playoffs will, as always, be riveting. This year, they will be enjoyable, because my team won’t have been given an early, unceremonious exit. My team won’t have broken my heart again.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Marco Gonzales (0-1, 7.07) vs. Miguel Gonzalez (7-10, 4.48)
Game time: 7:05

How the Mariners hit against Gonzalez.
The Rangers have never faced Gonzales.