The Texas Rangers remain in the thick of a playoff race even as their ability to win games consistently has been questionable at best this season.
Every time it seems the Rangers get some momentum toward either taking the lead in the American League West or extending it, that momentum seems to dissipate. It's not difficult to dissect when it happens, especially if you've been paying attention to the team all season. It seems that momentum disappears when the Rangers play on the road.
It's been that way on this road trip, too. Texas entered the week with a one-game lead in the AL West as they started a six-game road trip in Chicago. After losing two out of three to the White Sox and then losing the first two games of their current series with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Rangers are now two games back of the Houston Astros in the AL West.
With their loss on Saturday, the Rangers extended a streak that has come to define their recent lack of success - with one key exception .
Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker. Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The Rangers cannot have a winning record on the road this season. The loss on Saturday dropped them to 30-41 with 10 games left.
Per Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News (subscription required), this is the 10th straight season the Rangers have had a .500 or worse record in road games. That goes back to the 2017 season, when the Rangers went 37-44 on the road.
The year before, in 2016, Texas won the AL West with a record of 95-67 and a road record of 42-39.
That inability to win consistently on the road has been a fixture in how Texas has finished in the division for a decade. Going into Sunday's game with Milwaukee, the Rangers have not won a division title in that span and have finished a combined 196.5 games out of first place.
Rangers fans know there is one exception to the rule and that was 2023. The Rangers won the World Series that season and finished in a tie for first place with the Houston Astros in the AL West. But the Astros won the tiebreaker and the division thanks to winning the season series.
Texas finished 40-41 on the road that season. Of course, Texas defied that logic in the postseason by winning every single road game it played and wrapped to its first world championship.
Texas returns home after Sunday's game and hopes the friendly environment at Globe Life Field can help them put together a hot streak. But Texas still has two more road trips this season and that may define whether the Rangers head to the playoffs or at home watching October baseball for the third straight year.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/rangers/onsi as Rangers Decade-Long Problem Standing in Way of Playoff Berth .
