Major League Baseball enacted a number of new rules before this season that have really made the game better. Banning the shift and the pitch clock have had a dramatic impact. Making the bases larger, not as much as one might have expected, but some impact.
For the Rangers, the change that has had the most impact is the new schedule. Every team plays every other team now. It used to be you’d play nineteen games against your division rivals, then nine games against the rest of the teams in your league, and a handful of interleague games. Now, the amount of in-division games has been reduced to thirteen per opponent, and you play every team in the other league.
And that’s been the Rangers downfall.
They have just been swept by Arizona, a National League team, immediately after being swept by Milwaukee, a National League team. San Diego, a National League team, swept them, as did Cincinnati, a National League team.
In fact, the Rangers are three games under .500 against the National League, and even that seems hard to believe—that they’ve actually won a game. It would seem they are twenty games under.
The good news is, they move on to an American League opponent for their next four, Minnesota. And, in postseason play, the first few rounds will be against an American League opponent.
Everything will be going along just fine in the playoffs until they hit the World Series. They would have to face a National League team.
Maybe Major League Baseball can make a quick rule change before that.
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