It’s always a sad day when the Rangers are officially eliminated.

They were effectively eliminated when they signed Drew Smyly and Shelby Miller for the 2019 rotation. But it was made official with last night’s loss 14-9 loss to Oakland.

The Rangers are now 14 games behind the second wild card team with 13 games to play. They can’t beat the elite teams and they can’t beat the math. 

When Willie Calhoun’s pop up landed in Marcus Semien’s glove for the final out of the game, the Rangers post-season hopes were extinguished, not counting the Smyly and Miller incidents.

It was a fun game for fans to watch, at least. A barrage of three-run home runs made it a back and forth game, with four lead changes in the first four innings. The Rangers even had the bases loaded in the last inning to give the illusion of what could be another comeback.

But Texas and its tiny $128-million payroll is no match for the juggernaut Oakland Athletics with their whopping $93-million payroll. And the disparity in payroll showed last night. Oakland is just so much deeper in talent than Texas.

Two Rangers three-run homers were no match for Oakland’s two three-run homers, their two-run homer, and their two solo shots.

And with that, on a harvest moon Friday the Thirteenth, the Rangers playoff hopes were dashed for the fifth time in seven seasons. 

*****

TODAY’S GAME:

Mike Fiers (14-4, 3.97) vs. Mike Minor (13-8, 3.08)

Game time: 7:05