Somebody has to win the American League West.
The Texas Rangers hope it will be them.
Texas (79-80) has a shot at a division title if it wraps up the regular season with a successful series against the Minnesota Twins (75-84).
The teams will square off Friday night in Minneapolis to open a three-game set.
The Rangers will be the first to acknowledge they have endured a bumpy season, but they enter the final weekend in a neck-and-neck competition with the Houston Astros (79-80) for the division crown. The rest of the AL West’s members — the Seattle Mariners, Athletics and Los Angeles Angels — have been eliminated from playoff contention.
The Astros will win the division if they wind up tied with the Rangers by virtue of capturing the season series. Houston will play the Athletics this weekend in West Sacramento, Calif., to close the regular season.
A 3-1 victory over the New York Mets on Thursday provided the Rangers with more hope in the playoff race.
“Coming into (Thursday), it just felt like … we still have a heartbeat, still have a pulse, and it felt like we’d come out and play the game with our chest out and our chin up,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said.
Meanwhile, the Twins are looking to finish a disappointing season on an upbeat note. They have been eliminated from playoff contention but could use the final series to get additional looks at young players such as Walker Jenkins, who could figure prominently into the team’s 2027 plans.
Jenkins is hitting .222 with four home runs and 10 RBIs in 23 games since he was promoted from Triple-A St. Paul. He struggled badly in his first couple of weeks in the big leagues but has improved lately, and he delivered a go-ahead RBI in the Twins’ 4-2 victory in the team’s most recent game Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants.
“You’ve got to give him credit,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “… He’s going to be a good hitter. He’s going to play in the league for a long time. Just to be able to balance that out as we get toward the end of the season is extremely important.”
In Friday’s crucial game, the Rangers will turn to right-hander Jacob deGrom (11-10, 3.86 ERA). He has 196 strikeouts in 158 2/3 innings, and four more strikeouts will give him his first 200-strikeout campaign since 2019, when he had 255 for the Mets.
This will be deGrom’s third career start against Minnesota. He is 0-1 with a 7.00 ERA in his first two encounters.
The Twins will send out right-hander Joe Ryan (6-10, 3.83 ERA) for his final start of the season. He is looking for his first victory since July 5 against the New York Yankees.
Ryan has faced the Rangers four times in his career, going 2-1 with a 1.61 ERA and striking out 27 batters in 22 1/3 innings.
As for the Rangers, Schumaker said his team is not caught up in playoff tiebreakers or postseason hypotheticals.
“I’m not even thinking about that,” he said. “I’m thinking about (Friday), winning (Friday). That’s it.
“Jacob deGrom’s on the hill, and we have Corey Seager playing short, and ‘JJ’ (Josh Jung) playing third, and I’m really excited about what the lineup looks like.”
–Field Level Media
