The Texas Rangers have spent this season following the path of the 2022 New York Mets, who reversed years of underachievement after the hiring of a well-respected veteran manager.
But the reeling Rangers surely would prefer if the comparisons began ending Monday night when Texas visits the Mets for the opener of a three-game series.
Jon Gray (8-7, 3.76 ERA) is slated to start for the Rangers against fellow right-hander Tylor Megill (7-7, 5.54).
The Rangers fell out of first place in the American League West for the first time in almost five months Sunday afternoon when they squandered a five-run lead before losing to the Minnesota Twins 7-6 in 13 innings.
The Mets snapped a four-game losing streak when Rafael Ortega laced a walk-off RBI single in the ninth inning to give the hosts a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
The Twins’ Michael A. Taylor drew a bases-loaded walk against Jonathan Hernandez on Sunday to send the Rangers to their ninth loss in the last 10 games, dropping Texas a game behind the surging, first-place Seattle Mariners by virtue of the latter’s 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals.
The Mariners have gone 11-1 since Aug. 15 to make up a 7 1/2-game deficit.
Before Sunday, the Rangers spent just one day this season — April 8 — with no worse than a share of the division lead. Texas is in a virtual tie with the Houston Rangers for the final two wild-card spots in the American League, 2 1/2 games ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Rangers, who haven’t been to the playoffs since 2016, went 68-94 last season before luring three-time World Series-winning manager Bruce Bochy out of retirement.
“I think they know the situation,” Bochy said. “Win ballgames. There’s no magic wand here. We hit a tough stretch here, tough rut, and we’re going to come out and fight.”
The Mets hired Buck Showalter, who had led three previous teams to the playoffs, in November 2021 and held at least a piece of the National League East lead every day in 2022 except one from April 12 through Sept. 30. But the Atlanta Braves swept New York on the final weekend of the regular season and later won the division via the head-to-head tiebreaker when the teams finished with identical 101-61 records.
The Mets, making their first playoff appearance since 2016, then fell to the San Diego Padres in an NL Division Series and never got untracked this season. New York has been under .500 every day since June 6 and was a seller at the trade deadline, when it sent veteran right-hander Max Scherzer to the Rangers.
With the Mets nine games out of the final NL wild-card spot, the final weeks of the season are about the progress of younger players such as pitcher David Peterson, who struck out eight over a season-high seven innings on Sunday. It was just the second time this month a New York pitcher has thrown at least seven innings.
“We needed a starter to get deep into the game, and ‘Pete’ dialed that up for us,” Showalter said.
Gray took the loss last Tuesday, when he gave up five runs over four innings as the Rangers fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-3. He is 1-3 with an 8.04 ERA in six career starts against the Mets.
Megill also took the defeat on Tuesday after surrendering three runs over 4 2/3 innings in the Mets’ 3-2 loss to the Braves. He has never opposed the Rangers.
–Field Level Media
