I'm one of those baseball fans that prefers a consistent narrative. If there's a story guiding itself through a season, the worst thing it can do is flame out before October. I think of the 2014 Brewers, who dominated the narrative in the NL Central the whole year, fell apart in September and gave the division to St. Louis, like usual. Or, honestly, the last few Blue Jays teams, who've had such great stories and haven't amounted to much after the regular season. A lot of the times, it's when a more interesting narrative gets jettisoned in favor of a story we've seen before. I'm still mad at the Astros barely breaking into the playoffs in 2020, then making it almost to the end of the season because the playoffs were long enough for them to conserve momentum, as they typically find their momentum in the third month of play anyhow.
If not for an extra factor, the complication of this year's AL West race would be a similar disappointment. The Rangers were once one of the deadliest teams in baseball, had their run of multi-RBI games, rebounded from deGrom's injury thanks to a ton of pitching depth, and have been slowly forming an MVP campaign for Corey Seager in the event that Ohtani falls off. They slowed down a little at the end of July, and it was enough for the Astros to catch up, but some insane streaking and classic offense kept them ahead.
Unfortunately, since their 12-2 start to August, the Rangers have been 4-13. Admittedly, the losses came during a very tough stretch for the Rangers, with series' against the Brewers, Diamondbacks, Twins and, yes, the Astros. But being overtaken by Houston was just one aspect of this; the Rangers were also overtaken by the Seattle Mariners, who were unstoppable in August, and are currently leading the division despite some recent slippage. Meanwhile, the Astros, despite being swept by the Yankees, are back to their old tricks, and the other day they beat the hell out of the Rangers, still looking at a 2nd place finish that may end up being a 1st place finish by the end of the week.
And it's a little infuriating, because now the narrative seems to exist concurrently from the outcome of the Rangers' season. It's now the Mariners' quest for vengeance and the Astros trying to stay ahead of the competition, all while the Rangers are...kinda there, in third. And it is close enough for the Rangers to regain first, but even with Eovaldi returning and the A's on the way, losing that momentum is still a troubling development for the Rangers, especially this late in the season.
There are still people to rely on for this team, like Mitch Garver, who's found success as the team's go-to DH. Garver's hitting .886 with 16 home runs and 42 RBIs in 64 games, for a guy who missed half the season with injuries that's still a lot of impact on this team. Andrew Heaney has also had a consistent stretch, only giving up 3 or less runs in his past 5 starts. Corey Seager's hitting .345 and is looking at a 30-homer year, and if the MVP race hadn't already been decided, more or less, I'd say he'd have a shot. Thanks to Scherzer and Montgomery, this team hasn't buckled without deGrom or Eovaldi, and they still are within a game of the competition.
The Rangers' story isn't quite over yet for 2023, and they could still reclaim the division and silence the critics. But the last month has made that harder than it should be, and I worry it's gonna give them a lower seed, and earlier exit, than they deserve.
Coming Tonight: I thought he'd limp off after leaving Chicago, turns out he just needed the change of scenery.
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