Rangers’ homestand could affect their playoff fate

Usually full of tried-and-true pennant-race clichés about not watching the standings or scoreboard, not even Texas Rangers players could deny the potential impact their upcoming homestand could have on their postseason fate.

Three against the Toronto Blue Jays, who have been alternating between the American League East lead and the first wild card, and three against the Baltimore Orioles, who have been jockeying for a wild-card spot in lock step with the Rangers.

Both are good teams, especially the remade Blue Jays. The expectation is that they will win the East and knock the New York Yankees into the wild-card mix.

Baltimore, kind of like the Rangers, is still standing despite forecasts of doom and gloom.

These are big series, but while the wild card is an avenue into the postseason, the Rangers want to take a different route. They still have designs on winning the AL West.

“This is a really tight race,” third baseman Adrian Beltre said. “There are a lot of teams that are only a half-game or one game or 11/2 games [out of the wild card], which is pretty much nothing. We want to be in this situation. You’d rather be in this situation than five or six games behind.

“We’re good where we’re at. If we keep playing the way we’ve been playing, there’s no doubt we can hold onto that. We have the second wild card, but we’re still looking at the division.”

Houston remains the division leader, by four games entering Monday. The Rangers have seven games remaining against the Astros as well as seven more against the Los Angeles Angels, who have slipped to third in the West and out of a wild-card spot after feeling the full force of the Blue Jays in a three-game weekend sweep.

Those games will be played next month. The Rangers are focused on this week, make that on their next game Tuesday to kick off the Toronto series.

“They’re all important,” manager Jeff Banister said. “Looking ahead to the Toronto series, every game this time of year is important, but you take the only one you have to play.

“If you want to look at it from the global perspective of it all, yeah, it’s an opportunity to gain ground on the team ahead of you. But the reality of it is … we’re paying attention to today, and that’s it. As hard it as it may seem and as hard as it is for everyone to wrap their heads around, that’s the way we’re going to do. It would do more harm for us if we got off of that now.”

That’s probably a good idea considering the way Toronto left Angel Stadium in flames. The Blue Jays scored 36 runs in three games, and on Sunday overcame a 5-0 deficit to win 12-5.

They acquired All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki ahead of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline and former Cy Young winner David Price on deadline day, among others. The Blue Jays are 16-4 this month.

“They got almost everybody in the game,” shortstop Elvis Andrus said. “They did a terrific job. It’s working for them so far.”

But the Rangers’ acquisitions since July 31 have been doing pretty well, too. Cole Hamels won his first game Sunday, Mike Napoli had RBIs in three straight starts, and Sam Dyson and Jake Diekman have established themselves as late-inning forces out of the bullpen.

The Rangers are 14-7 in August.

“We’ve all come from teams that were out of it,” said Hamels, who will start Friday. “It kind of sparks your level of play back up to what we know we’re capable of doing. This is the reason we train in the off-season. This is what we enjoy most.”

This week, then, should be a fun one for the Rangers as they jockey for wild-card position. They also have their eyes on a bigger prize, the AL West title.

“We’re still not done, though,” said left-hander Derek Holland, who will start Tuesday. “There’s still a lot of season that’s left to be played. We’re going to continue to push forward because our goal is to win the AL West, not be a wild card.”

This story was originally published August 24, 2015 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Rangers’ homestand could affect their playoff fate."