Blue Jays Offer Texas Rangers Chance to Reverse Playoff Position

Winning the series at the Toronto Blue Jays would guarantee the Texas Rangers move back into Wild Card position.

The Texas Rangers can’t lock down a playoff spot during this crucial series with the Toronto Blue Jays starting Monday night.

But the Rangers can very well play themselves out of the postseason if they’re not careful.

Texas (78-64) heads north of the border riding a modest two-game winning streak and chasing in multiple playoff races. The Rangers current priority – at least in terms of proximity – is to climb back into the American League Wild Card position.

In that race, Texas is a half-game back of the Seattle Mariners (79-64). Right ahead of their division rivals are the Blue Jays (80-63), who are 1.5 games up on the Rangers.

“Each game is its individual game and we want to focus on that, no matter who we’re playing,” said Marcus Semien, who set a franchise record with his eighth leadoff home run of the season in Sunday’s 9-4 win over the Oakland Athletics.

“The standings are the standings, but it we focus on the task at hand, see where we’re at the end, I think that’s a better plan than putting pressure on ourselves.”

Texas, which set its rotation for Toronto with Max Scherzer and Nathan Eovaldi in the mix, can’t afford to fall apart at Rogers Centre like the club did last week against the AL West-leading Houston Astros. Getting swept is the chief reason the Rangers are now chasing clubs instead of looking down on teams.

A split with Toronto is likely the worst Texas can if it wants to stay in serious playoff contention. A split of four games would leave the Rangers in the same spot relative to the Blue Jays, but with Seattle facing the non-factor Los Angeles Angels, the Mariners would have a good chance to widening their lead over Texas.

Should the Rangers win at least three, they would be guaranteed to pass Toronto. A sweep would obviously be ideal and produce a 2.5-game cushion over the Blue Jays.

Considering the Rangers haven’t swept a team since finishing off the Miami Marlins in three games on Aug. 6, that’s a tall order on the road. Texas has been swept three times since then.

If the Rangers lose the series 3-1 or 4-0, they not only lose multiple games in relation to Toronto, but the Astros and Mariners likely pull even farther ahead in the division. Houston (82-62) leads Texas by 3.0 games going into Monday and has the lowly Oakland Athletics up next.

After the Toronto series, only 16 games are left in the season for Texas. The time to make a move is now.

There’s plenty of opportunity to make up ground on Seattle with seven meetings in the last 10 games of the regular season. The Mariners come to Arlington for three games (Sept. 22-24) before Texas ends the 2023 campaign in Seattle with four games (Sept. 28-Oct. 1).

---

You can follow Art Garcia on Twitter @ArtGarcia92.

Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram.