Officially out: Rangers’ last week with nothing to win hasn’t been the norm

The Texas Rangers aren’t used to this. Meaningless games the last week of the season haven’t been the norm around Globe Life Park since 2010, the year the club reached its first World Series.

In fact, since 2009, this is only the second time the Rangers have been forced to play out their season with nothing riding on the outcome.

The American League West champion Houston Astros, who jumped out to a 4-0 first-inning lead and scored five in the fifth, pounded the Rangers 14-3 on Tuesday night. The Rangers were officially eliminated from the wild-card race earlier Tuesday night Minnesota won.

To say that it was only a matter of time is only partly true. The Rangers were within striking distance of the second AL wild-card berth last week before getting swept by the last-place Oakland A’s.

“It is a little weird to get to the final week and there’s pretty much no meaning, playing-wise, but that’s what it is,” said Elvis Andrus, who joined the Rangers’ everyday lineup in 2009.

The 2014 team was beset by major injuries to Prince Fielder, Shin-Soo Choo, Mitch Moreland, Derek Holland, Colby Lewis and many, many others. The front office had no choice but to acknowledge the season was lost by the All-Star break.

“That was a little bit different year for us,” Andrus said. “I believe this year, even with all the injuries that we had, we still had the guys here to contend.”

It’s easy to go back and wonder “what if” things had gone just a little differently. What if the Rangers hadn’t gotten off to such a bad start? They were 13-20 on the morning of May 9 before winning 10 consecutive games. What if their bullpen hadn’t been so shaky early? Of their 20 blown saves, 17 came before July.

These thoughts dance around players’ minds as they prepare to play for pride and not the postseason.

“Those are the things that go through your mind,” Andrus said. “As many games as we lost in the first half ... if we win at least half of those games, we’d probably be leading the first wild card. But that’s just the way baseball is, man.”

Delino DeShields, who has been in the postseason in six of his eight professional seasons, including the first five in the minors, has let those “what ifs” play out in his head but is ready to look forward to 2018.

“We’ve got to be where our feet are and not really look back and think, ‘What if?,’ ” DeShields said. “ We’re here, and we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do now despite everything that happened throughout the season,” he said. “The energy is a little different. But I’m still trying to prove something. I just want to finish on a good note personally and as a ballclub.”

Few have played in more playoff games than Rangers slugger Mike Napoli. He’s played in the postseason in eight of his 12 seasons, including three World Series. His 66 postseason games played are fourth most among active players. He re-signed with the Rangers in the off-season specifically because he thought they would contend for a title.

“It seemed like every time we’d get it rolling we’d take a step backward. It was tough for us to keep consistent on both sides. It seems like when our pitching was really good we didn’t hit, and when we were hitting we didn’t hold leads,” Napoli said. “We had a run where we won 10 straight and we were playing good baseball it kind of went up and down from there. It’s disappointing. We’re a better team on paper, but that’s the reason why you go out and play.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2017 at 9:31 PM with the headline "Officially out: Rangers’ last week with nothing to win hasn’t been the norm."