The Rangers land in Seattle for four of the most important games they’ll play all season. Hyperbole aside, this isn’t a make-or-break series, but it is critical.

With last night’s Texas 6-3 victory over Los Angeles and Seattle’s 5-4 loss to Sacramento, both teams have identical 57-52 records, five games behind Houston, tied for the third wild card spot. Seattle already owns the tie breaker by virtue of its 7-2 edge over Texas so far. Even if the Rangers won all four games, the Mariners would still win the season series.

So, from here on out it’s going to be a sprint to the finish, the final fifty-one games. The Rangers are going into this mad dash unable to beat left-handed pitching. They have until 5:00 tonight to remedy that. Seattle has already addressed its offense by re-acquiring third-baseman Eugenio Suarez, who had thirty-six home runs for the Diamondbacks. 

With that deal, now Seattle has two of the top five home run hitters in baseball, with Cal Raleigh leading everyone with forty-one homers. 

The most a Ranger has is fifteen, from Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford, and Adolis Garcia. 

So, the four-game series starts tonight featuring the power of Seattle and the arms of Texas in a ballpark the Rangers cannot seem to win.

Here’s hoping they go into the series with the bat they absolutely must acquire and the closer they really need.

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