If the Houston Astros were to glance in the American League West’s rearview mirror, they would see the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners.
The Rangers may be closer than they appear, but the defending division champion Mariners are still hanging around.
The Rangers (71-73) and Mariners (67-77) open a three-game series Tuesday in Seattle, with the winner hoping to close the gap on the Astros, who have a two-game lead over the Rangers and are six ahead of the Mariners.
The Mariners’ playoff hopes took a hit when they lost three in a row to the visiting Athletics before salvaging the series finale Sunday, as Bryan Woo pitched eight innings of one-hit ball in a 2-0 victory.
“We just haven’t played complete baseball,” Woo said. “But you’ve got your games in front of you on your schedule and you’ve got to show up and you’ve got to play. You’ve got to fight. Take it one day at a time. Do everything that you can to just win today’s ballgame. That’s all you can do.”
The Mariners held a team meeting after Saturday’s 6-2 loss.
“There’s not really much (left) to say,” Cal Raleigh said after Sunday’s game, in which he drove in what proved to be the winning run. “It’s put your best foot forward, play as hard as you can, try to win as many games as you can for the rest of the season and whatever happens, happens. We’re at that point and put ourselves in a bad position. … It’s just go out there and find a way to get it done.”
The Rangers dropped two straight at home to Tampa Bay before Jake Burger hit a pair of homers Sunday in an 8-6 victory.
“I think there’s a lot of belief,” Burger said. “I think when you lose those two games, it’s easy to hit the panic button a little bit. But I think there’s a lot of belief in this clubhouse amongst the guys. It’s still right there for us, both the wild card and the division. We just have to show up every single day and do our jobs.”
Burger has 25 homers this season, tying for the team lead with Joc Pederson and has already set a career high with 82 RBIs.
“Winner,” said Rangers manager Skip Schumaker. “That’s what I think about Jake Burger. He comes in and he posts every single day. Last year he was hurt a lot. He tried to fight through it. It was hard. Looking at him, if you would have told me he was going to hit 25-plus and have 80-plus RBIs, we would have all signed up for that. This is the Jake Burger I remember (from their time in Miami). He’s just a winning player, and he’s built for those moments.”
Both the Rangers and Mariners enter this series with 18 games remaining in the regular season.
“I come in thinking we’re going to win every single day,” Schumaker said. “That’s the hard, honest truth, and those guys do as well.”
Neither the Rangers nor the Mariners had announced their pitching plans for the series by late Monday afternoon. If they stick with their recent rotations, then the Rangers will give the ball to left-hander Cody Bradford (0-4, 4.45 ERA) while the Mariners will turn to right-hander Bryce Miller (4-8, 4.01).
Seattle lost eight straight Miller starts before claiming an 8-3 win over the Boston Red Sox on Sept. 2 in his most recent start. The Rangers have lost Bradford’s last five starts.
–Field Level Media
