Rangers go even on trip but that won’t cut it in wild card race

At this point, playing .500 baseball would be a slight improvement for the Texas Rangers.

But that’s not going to cut it if they have any visions about competing for one of two wild card spots.

They’re still five games below after taking the road trip finale 5-1 against the New York Mets at Citi Field on Wednesday afternoon.

They went 3-3 on the trip and are four games back of the second wild card berth. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? It wouldn’t if there weren’t seven teams in front of the Rangers all hanging right above, below or at .500. It’s a wild card mess at the moment.

The Rangers return to begin a 10-game homestand at Globe Life Park starting Friday with a three-game series against the Houston Astros.

Simply put, the Rangers need to stack some wins together to make a move in the wild card standings. Catching the Astros? Forget it. The Astros lead the Rangers by 17  1/2 games. Heck, the Mariners and Angels are ahead of the Rangers in the wild card standings.

“[We need to] be more consistent. We’ve played well some games and other games not so well,” said Adrian Beltre, who had two hits to increase his all-time total to 3,008, 29th most in history. He needs two more to tie Wade Boggs for 28th. “I think our offense needs to give more run support for our pitching staff. Going back home for 10 games is a good way to start doing that more often.”

If the Rangers are able to make a push the last month and a half of the season, they’ll need their starting rotation to step up and provide the stability that went almost unnoticed early in the season when the offense had trouble rubbing two runs together.

Martin Perez provided perhaps the first move in that direction with his best start of the season. He held the Mets to one run on three hits over eight innings to earn his first win since July 14. He walked none and struck out five. Alex Claudio pitched a perfect ninth to close it out.

Perez turned in his longest outing since Aug. 2, 2015 while following his two worst starts of the season when he allowed a combined 15 runs on 18 hits.

“Probably the best outing he’s had all year long,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “Great rhythm and tempo.”

Joey Gallo’s two-run homer was part of a three-run first inning that was more than enough for Perez. The Rangers added runs in the second and the sixth.

Perez didn’t allow a hit until Wilmer Flores’ leadoff homer in the fifth. Even that had to be reviewed. At first, it looked like a double off the top of the left-field wall but was ruled a homer after a crew chief review.

Perez retired the next three batters and 11 of the final 13 he faced. He hit a batter with two outs in the first but retired 12 of the first 13 batters.

“The key today was I threw everything down. When I throw everything down and throw my sinker down and away I have good games,” said Perez, who improved to 6-10. “That’s how it has to stay right now. That’s going to be my focus.”

This story was originally published August 9, 2017 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Rangers go even on trip but that won’t cut it in wild card race."