Will Texas Rangers, Mariners Regret Not Burying Struggling Houston Astros?

The early-season struggles of the Houston Astros have helped turn the American League West into a two-team race between the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners.

Apr 14, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers center fielder Leody Taveras (3) scores a run past / Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

The Texas Rangers are atop the American League West thanks to a recent surge that’s seen the reigning World Series champions win eight of their last 11 games going into Thursday.

That uptick has propelled the Rangers (22-17) past the Seattle Mariners (20-17) in the division. Those are the only two clubs with winning records in the AL West.

The other three clubs -- Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics -- are on the wrong side of .500. Is that where they’ll stay? Is the West destined to be a two-team race between the Rangers and Mariners?

Well, MLB.com doesn’t see much excitement out West. In a recent ranking of the division races, the West came fourth out of six divisions in terms of intrigue.

The struggles of the Rangers’ main rival being the main reason.

This division has been turned upside down by the Astros’ early-season stumble. This was the team that won six of the last seven division titles (with the only one they didn’t win being the truncated 2020 season). The Astros are 11 games under .500 -- something that, before this season, they hadn’t been since May 22, 2016 -- and look completely lost.

So how has this division reacted to the Astros, at last, leaving the door wide open for them? It is full of teams that seem awfully reluctant to walk through it. The Angels, now without Mike Trout yet again, have fallen behind the Astros. The A’s have been a great story but were still hitting only .215 as a team entering Tuesday and have the 25th-best rotation ERA (4.53) in the Majors, so the fun seems unlikely to last.

That leaves the Rangers and Mariners, who have played well enough recently to create some distance between themselves and the .500 mark but have hardly been world beaters. The Rangers are running out of pitchers, and while the Mariners have plenty of those, their offense is hitting .222 and Julio Rodríguez still hasn’t gotten going. It is possible that the rest of the AL West will regret not burying the Astros when it had the chance.

- MLB.com

The Rangers know that all too well after Houston surged at the end of last season to claim the West crown via a tiebreaker. Texas opens a three-game series at the Colorado Rockies starting Friday night.

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