Is it just a coincidence? Is it the inevitable course correction after playing over their heads? Or is there something to it? But the Rangers were cruising, then Adolis Garcia came back, and now they’re losing. Texas is 0-2 in Garcia’s two games back. 

Did it mess with the chemistry they had? Is there actually something to that?

It’s hard to answer any of these questions because it’s really hard to explain how the Rangers got better once Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Evan Carter, and Garcia all exited the lineup. But they did. And now that Garcia is back, they’re not.

You cannot blame Garcia for the sloppy defense and baserunning the past two games. But in a game they absolutely had to win, Bruce Bochy sat two of the three main spark plugs responsible for this recent resurgence. Cody Freeman and Michael Helman sat. Would it have mattered had they started? Hard to say. What is indisputable, though, is the offense sputtered, and the spark was gone. And Garcia went 0-for-4.

Yes, both Freeman and Helman eventually got into the game, but it’s not that same. 

Thanks to two errors, only three of the six runs the Rangers allowed were earned. Thanks to a really boneheaded decision for Jonah Heim to try to score from second on Wyatt Langford single to left when the leftfielder had the ball before Heim had even gotten to third, the Rangers ran themselves out of a potential inning in the seventh.

Now they drop to three games behind the Astros in the wild card with eleven games to play. While every loss is big this time of the season, and last night’s game was so important, the Rangers absolutely must win the next two. 

The Rangers found that inexplicable something, that intangible that’s a real thing in sports. And they gave it up. They’ve lost their mojo along with their last two games.

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