Rangers veering close to home futility streak

The Texas Rangers are at a crossroads.

They’ve lost eight consecutive home games, including the last five entering the final series before the All-Star break, and their hopes of remaining in the postseason hunt are hanging by a thread.

To keep hope alive, the Rangers need to snap out of their funk this weekend against the San Diego Padres so the four-day All-Star break takes on the feel of a resurgence rather than a wake.

A year ago, Texas was playing .500 baseball until taking a nose dive in June. By the end of the month an eight-game losing streak at home, including the last seven games before the All-Star break, put the Rangers 19 games below .500 and signaled a need to rebuild instead of reloading for the stretch run.

At 41-44 and five games behind the first-place Astros and five games back in the crowded wild card standings, the Rangers could put a positive spin on the first half and renew hopes with a strong showing this weekend.

But, at 15-24, Texas has the fewest home wins in the majors. After taking three of four in Baltimore, the Rangers lost three straight to the Los Angeles Angels and two to Arizona in being 0-for-July at home. Although the Padres won’t start any left-handed pitchers, which have been a killer for the Rangers’ left-hitting lineup of late, they have won more games on the road than at home.

“It really hasn’t happened for us at home. It’s kind of weird how to explain that,” shortstop Elvis Andrus said. “We came in from Baltimore playing good baseball and come back here … I’m really glad [Thursday] is an off day. We haven’t played good baseball here at home. It’s something we need to fix and get better at.”

The Rangers have done it once already this season after an 8-16 start. They improved to six games above .500 as late as June 19. But a six-game losing streak, including a three-game sweep at home to Oakland rekindled memories of the summer slide of a year ago. The Rangers were at .500 on June 16, 2014, before a 3-22 swoon heading into the break.

“The season is long from being over,” outfielder Josh Hamilton said. “Everybody at some point stubs their toe a little bit, battles back from it and gets things going again. It’s something they’ve already done this year from the beginning of the season. These guys, this team, know how to fight through adversity and come out on the other side, and I don’t expect anything different.”

The struggles at home, especially during the eight-game losing streak that is one loss shy of the club record, have been brutal. The Rangers have been outscored 44-14 in their past five games and haven’t led in a game since July 2 at Baltimore.

“The biggest thing is getting leads and keeping the crowd involved in the game. Because we feed off the crowd, we really do,” Hamilton said. “If we allow them to be in the game, then it energizes us through nine innings. There is something to that, I really think so.”

In the slide, the Rangers are 8 for 59 with runners in scoring position. No one seems to have an answer for the lack of timely hits.

“I don’t know. It just happens,” said Shin-Soo Choo, who is batting .188 with runners in scoring position. “I still believe in this team.”

In Wednesday’s loss, the Rangers were 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position.

“To leave 11 [runners on base] really has not been the characteristic of this ballclub, especially not during the stretch when we were going well,” Manager Jeff Banister said. “We were driving in those runs. There were quality at-bats and I felt tonight those got away from us.”

Banister has confidence his offense will turn it around.

“This is a good offense. These guys are good hitters and they know it ... our at-bats have got to get better in those situations,” he said.

This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Rangers veering close to home futility streak."