With yesterday’s 5-3 loss to Tampa Bay, the Texas Rangers have been officially eliminated from playoff contention. They are now 17 games out of the final wild card spot with 16 games to play.

MLB added a third wild card to each league starting this year, giving the Rangers one more glimmer of hope, which vanished with Glenn Otto’s four earned runs in 3.1 innings performance against the Rays.

Elimination day, unlike Leap Year, is an annual occurrence for the Texas Rangers franchise for the past half-dozen seasons, and, unfortunately, for eight of the past ten years.

Mourn accordingly.

*****