MINNEAPOLIS — The Texas Rangers finished one game behind the Houston Astros in the American League West, and their season ended Sunday at Target Field. Texas lost 6-4 to the Minnesota Twins in Game 162 to finish 80-82. Houston beat the Athletics 9-0 in West Sacramento, Calif., to close at 81-81 and clinch the division.
Going into the day, the Rangers needed a win and a Houston loss. Houston held the tiebreaker after taking the season series 9-4, so a tie at 81-81 would also have gone to the Astros. They led the Athletics 8-0 in the eighth inning when the final out was made in Minneapolis.
Houston’s 81-81 finish is the worst record for a division winner in baseball history, MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry reported. The previous low marks belonged to the 2005 Padres at 82-80, the 1973 Mets at 82-79, and the 2006 Cardinals at 83-78.
Sunday’s loss left Texas without a postseason trip for a third straight season since it won the 2023 World Series. The Rangers are the first American League team to win a World Series and then miss the postseason in each of the next three seasons since the Kansas City Royals, who won it in 2015, Landry reported.
In a postgame interview on Rangers Sports Network, Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said the hurt from the final day belongs to his coaching staff as much as it does to the clubhouse.
“They gave it everything they had the whole year through 162, and I’m grateful for that,” Schumaker said. “But the goal was to get to the postseason and make a run, and we didn’t do that, and we fell short. And that’s going to hurt for a little bit. That’s the sentiment in the clubhouse. It’s what the coaching staff feels.”
“The bottom line is we just weren’t good enough, weren’t good enough on the road, and weren’t good enough against teams we should have beat, and that’s a reflection on me,” Schumaker continued. “And I got to figure out what to do this offseason, look in the mirror, and figure out how to move this thing forward because there’s too good of talent in that room for us to fall short. We’ve got to figure out a way to get back.”
MacKenzie Gore Exits Early As Dean Kremer Holds Texas To 3 Hits
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Josh Bell. Rangers left-hander MacKenzie Gore lasted 2 1/3 innings in his 34th start of the season, allowing 1 run on 1 hit with 1 walk and 0 strikeouts on 25 pitches. Gore finished his first season with Texas at 8-11.
Danny Jansen tied the game 1-1 with a leadoff home run in the third inning. In the bottom half, Chase Silseth took over for Gore with one out. Bell then hit a two-out, two-run homer to right field that put the Twins ahead to stay at 3-1, and Silseth took the loss to fall to 0-2.
Texas used six pitchers through the first five innings as Schumaker worked matchups, going from Silseth to Robert Garcia and Tyler Alexander. With Alexander on the mound, Walker Jenkins led off the fifth with a single. Jakob Junis entered next and walked three of the next four hitters, forcing in a run. Kody Clemens greeted Jordan Montgomery with an RBI single that made it 5-1.
On the other side, Dean Kremer held the Rangers to 1 run on 3 hits over 7 innings, with 0 walks and 4 strikeouts. He retired 15 of his last 16 batters and improved to 5-5. Since Minnesota acquired him from the Baltimore Orioles, Kremer has gone 4-1 with a 3.48 ERA in 10 starts.
Elias Díaz homered off A.J. Minter in the eighth to cut the deficit to 5-2. Royce Lewis got the run back with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning. In the ninth, Corey Seager hit a two-run homer off Andrew Morris, his 20th of the season, before Morris closed out the win.
Schumaker said the plan was one time through the Twins’ order for Gore, followed by a run of bullpen matchups.
“I think [we] were trying to match up as best as we could,” Schumaker explained. “With bullpen-wise, we knew MacKenzie wasn’t feeling great. So trying to get him one time through the lineup was kind of the goal and then kind of match up the best we could. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get any runs on the board. Kremer was really good against us. And they kept adding on, and we just couldn’t. A lot of quick innings. So Seager getting a home run at the end was great, but just a little too late for what we really needed.”
“And I think the guys gave it everything they had,” Schumaker added. “I’ve been running that bullpen, gosh, for it feels like a month now, and they were gassed. It’s just the reality of it. They gave everything they had. We just couldn’t stop them over there.”
The Rangers’ bullpen entered the day with a 4.44 ERA, 10th in the AL, Landry reported. Texas also played a second straight game without Josh Jung, who broke his right hand when he was hit by a pitch Friday. Joc Pederson has been out since fracturing his left hand earlier this month.
Skip Schumaker, Corey Seager, And Jake Burger Reflect On 80-82 Finish
The Rangers went 35-46 on the road and 51-53 against teams below .500, according to Landry. After the All-Star break, they dropped all but one series away from Globe Life Field.
A soft division record mattered less to Schumaker than the teams Texas did not beat, and he took the road problem on himself while speaking with reporters after the game.
“I think the disappointing part is that we’re not playing in October,” Schumaker said. “The record is the record. I get it. The division is not great as far as record-wise. Our [record] wasn’t either. The reality is we didn’t play well enough against under .500 teams. We didn’t play well enough on the road, and I didn’t solve that problem.”
“That part is frustrating more than anything,” Schumaker detailed. “That’s more than looking at the other teams in the division and worrying about them. The frustrating part is like not figuring out different ways to help beat the teams that we should have beat.”
The AL West finished with a combined -471 run differential, the second-lowest for any division since divisions began in 1969, Landry reported. Only the 2005 National League West, at -490, was lower.
Seager went on the injured list three separate times in 2026. When players fall short of the years they are supposed to have, getting them back to who they were falls on the manager, in Schumaker’s view.
“When you look back on it, there’s some guys that didn’t have the seasons that they wanted to have, and it’s probably a little bit of reflection of the record, for sure,” Schumaker said. “I think that’s on this seat. If guys don’t have the years that they’re supposed to have and we’re not over a .500 team, then I have to figure out a way to get them back to who they were. As a coach and manager, you’re supposed to help guys find the best version of themselves. Obviously it starts with me.”
Schumaker finished his first season as Rangers manager at 80-82. The group in that clubhouse had him excited to come to the field every day, and he expects it to look different next spring.
“I think the tough part is the group of guys in that clubhouse, it won’t be the same because every team is different,” Schumaker said. “Every offseason is different. Guys go different places. And that group of guys are such good people that you bet on. And I was just so excited to come to the field every day because of the group that we have here.”
“And I felt like we should be playing next month. And we’re not,” Schumaker noted. “And I think that’s always the goal. So when you don’t get there, it’s frustrating. And we got to figure out a way to get back. So the goal is always going to be to win. We didn’t win enough, and we got to figure out how to do that.”
Jake Burger entered Sunday with 28 home runs and 90 RBIs. The first baseman’s frustration reached well past the final game of a race decided by one game.
“It isn’t just today,” Burger said. “There’s a lot of games you nitpick when you’re in this close. It’s incredibly disappointing. … I think it’s just tough to swallow in general. … Yeah, it sucks.”
For Seager, the offseason starts with finding ways to be more productive.
“Obviously, we weren’t good enough,” Seager said. “So it’s [about] figuring out ways to be better, be more productive. Obviously, it comes down to one game, right? So we need to figure out that way to take that one extra out, one extra run, one extra win.”
Brandon Nimmo, who waived his no-trade clause before this season so the New York Mets could trade him to Texas, plans to dig into the numbers to find where he and the team can improve, Landry reported. Seager declined to discuss what personnel changes could come for 2027.
Minnesota finished 77-85, a seven-win improvement in Twins manager Derek Shelton‘s first season.
Houston opens a best-of-three AL Wild Card Series against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday at Daikin Park.
