The Rangers come back home from a west coast road trip on which they went 3-3. That has to be considered a successful trip for the Rangers.

Considering that the last two seasons under Chris Woodward, leaving home has been a nighmare for Texas.

They were just 24-57 away from home in 2021, a .296 winning percentage. It’s hard to get much worse. But they did in 2020, going 6-24 on the road, a .200 winning percentage.

That’s not just bad, it’s dreadful.

Combined with their season opening 1-2 road trip to Toronto, the Rangers are 4-5 on the road so far in 2020. It’s at home where they are dreadful.

The Rangers return home tonight for a four-game set against division champion Houston, then three against World Series champion Atlanta. At home the Rangers are 1-5. This is a huge seven-day stretch for them.

This early in the season won-loss records at home and away are still such small sample sizes to make any meaningful comments on, but winning three out of six in Seattle and Oakland is a positive.

Their three games against Oakland, the pitching really stepped up, allowing just three total runs. The teams swapped 2-0 shutouts Saturday and Sunday.  Was their first series win of the year a function of the Rangers pitching finally figuring things out? Or was it just that it was against Oakland? Whatever, pitching is confidence and, with the final game in Seattle, the Rangers have now had four strong starts in a row.

But what usually happens to a struggling team is, when they get pitching, the bats go away. And the offense that was so championed the first week of the season has disappeared. Corey Seager and Mitch Garver struggled on the road trip. Seager went 4-for-24, Garver was 1-for-21. Brad Miller, who was so brilliant the first week, cooled off on the trip, going 2-for 16, but one of those two hits was the difference in their 2-0 win Saturday. Then there are the usual suspects. Willie Calhoun was 1-for-11, Kole Calhoun was 1-for-12. 

This is the challenge of a struggling team. Getting everything going at once. 

For this team, let’s see if they can get it going at home.

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