Oakland is Texas’s arch-nemisis. The Rangers are now 5-10 against the Athletics this year. They were 6-13 in 2018.

Never mind the ground the Rangers need to cover in order to be on a level playing field with Houston, they have a long way to go just to play with the second-place team in the West.

That’s a bit more frustrating. This team is miles away from second.

Texas doesn’t have anyone in the same vicinity as Matt Olsen at first, Marcus Semien at short, Matt Chapman at third, Ramon Laureano in center, Khris Davis in left, Mrk Canha at DH and Josh Phegley behind the plate.

So, as Texas heads into the off-season trying to improve its inferior roster, it might be wise not to measure themselves against Houston, which is playing on another galaxy, but to try to get closer to Oakland, in our universe but far far away. After all, this team is fifteen games away from the second wild card. 

They have a lot of ground to make up just to be mediocre.

*****

TODAY’S GAME:

Sean Manaea (1-0, 0.75) vs. Jonathan Hernandez (1-0, 1.93)

Game time: 2:05