Well, it looks like we know how the Rangers were able to handle the pressure of a pennant race.

They weren’t. When the needed to win the most, they’ve lost the most game in a row they’ve lost all season. Six straight losses have put the Rangers hopes on life support. And they won’t be resuscitated.

Their six-game skid has coincided with the Guardians ten-game winning streak. The playoff hopefuls are set. There are seven teams fighting for six spots, and Texas isn’t one of them. Toronto, Seattle, Detroit, New York, Boston, Cleveland, and Houston.

Detroit had a fourteen-game lead over Cleveland on July 7. It was a ten-game lead on September 3. Now it’s one game. This might be an epic collapse. Houston might not win the AL West for the first time since Oakland won in 2020.

The American League division races are paper thin. Toronto leads New York by just two games. Seattle leads Houston by two. Detroit leads Cleveland by one. The other team in the hunt is Boston. One of those will be the odd man out.

And sitting on the outside, left out, looking in, is Texas. Five games out of the wild card with just seven to go. While they aren’t mathematically eliminated, they would need the teams ahead of them to lose six of their final seven games. But they would also need to win six of the seven remaining.

That isn’t happening. What they need to concentrate on is on now is just seeing of they can get to .500. All they have to do to accomplish that is just win two of their final seven games.

Right now, that might be too much to ask of this team.

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