ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers have six games left in the regular season and a one-game lead in the American League West, and none of those games come against the Houston Astros. Texas (78-78) opens a three-game series against the New York Mets on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field, then closes the season with three games at the Minnesota Twins.
Houston (77-79) won the season series 9-4 and holds the tiebreaker, so the Rangers have to finish ahead of the Astros outright to win the division. Any combination of six Rangers wins and Astros losses clinches it for Texas.
The Astros have lost three straight and are 3-7 over their last 10 games. Texas is 6-4 over its last 10. All six of Houston’s remaining games are on the road, where the Astros are 38-37 this season. They play two at the Seattle Mariners starting Tuesday and four against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park from Sept. 24-27.
The Mets, Twins, Mariners, and Athletics have all been eliminated from postseason contention. New York is 71-85 and last in the National League East. Minnesota is 73-84.
On Monday’s off day, Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young made his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan’s G-Bag Nation. Had someone told him at the start of the year that the Rangers would be a game up with six to play, Young would have signed up for it, independent of the record. Young pitched 13 seasons in the majors and won the 2015 World Series with the Kansas City Royals.
“For me, I can speak from personal experience,” Young said. “The heightened meaning of each game brought out the best in me. And really the game is still the same. It’s one pitch at a time, one at-bat at a time. Nothing changes in terms of that. But when something’s on the line like this, it’s easy to get up for and to be ready for. And so I expect that from our guys.
“And ultimately, the biggest message I would have to our players right now is that let’s go take this,” Young continued. “Let’s not sit back and hope that it happens. Let’s go take it. And if we play with that mentality, I have no doubt that this group can get it done.”
He ran the Rangers’ front office when they won the 2023 World Series, and Texas has not been back to the postseason since. The Rangers went 81-81 in 2025, the first .500 season in franchise history.
MacKenzie Gore Starts Tuesday As Texas Rangers Leave Rest Of Rotation Open
MacKenzie Gore (8-11, 4.67 ERA) faces left-hander Sean Manaea (5-7, 4.74 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. CT on Rangers Sports Network. It is Gore’s first start since muscle spasms in his back and shoulder cut short his Sept. 16 outing against the Boston Red Sox. Over his last five starts, he has allowed 17 earned runs in 20 innings with 17 walks and 11 strikeouts.
In Saturday’s 6-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, Cal Quantrill left with right lat tightness after 1 1/3 innings. Texas placed him on the 15-day injured list Sunday. The Rangers have not named starters for Wednesday’s 7:05 p.m. CT game or Thursday’s 1:35 p.m. CT finale, when right-hander Nolan McLean pitches for New York.
Young said he expects to see the A version of Jacob deGrom in his next start, especially if the game carries weight in the standings. He did not put a date on it.
“We met on it this afternoon, and I chuckled because really at this point it’s all hands on deck, and we’re going to sort of play it day by day,” Young explained. “And so we do know MacKenzie Gore will start tomorrow. And then after that, we’re going to look at matchups. We’re going to see how the previous day went, who’s available and really piece this together. But I can assure you, Jacob deGrom will pitch one of those games, and MacKenzie will go tomorrow, and the rest of it, we will figure out.”
In Sunday’s 7-2 loss to Toronto, deGrom went 4 1/3 innings and allowed 5 hits and 3 earned runs, with 4 walks and 2 strikeouts. It was his second start since mild groin tightness ended his Sept. 10 outing at Seattle. The two-time Cy Young Award winner is 11-10 with a 3.86 ERA and 196 strikeouts.
On Sunday, deGrom did not have a real good feel for anything beyond maybe his changeup and curveball. He could not locate the fastball, and the slider did not play off it.
“We know we gotta win,” deGrom said. “We gotta win as many games as we can. It’d be nice to win all of them. It would have been nice to win today, but I didn’t do a great job of helping us in that situation. We have to go play good baseball in these last six games and see what we can do.”
When Quantrill left Saturday, Jordan Montgomery recorded the next 11 outs without allowing a hit. Nathan Eovaldi pitched the sixth inning that night on two days of rest. On Sunday morning, Jack Leiter reached 92 to 93 mph in his first bullpen session since going on the 60-day injured list after ankle surgery.
The Mets series closes the Rangers’ final homestand. Texas is 44-34 at Globe Life Field and 34-44 on the road. The Rangers are unbeaten in nine straight home series, going 8-0-1.
Houston Astros Visit Seattle As Chicago White Sox Hold Final Wild Card
Houston starts right-hander Cristian Javier (2-6, 5.31 ERA) against right-hander Logan Gilbert (12-10, 3.69 ERA) on Tuesday at T-Mobile Park, with first pitch at 8:40 p.m. CT. Wednesday’s game in Seattle starts at 9:10 p.m. CT.
The Chicago White Sox (80-76) hold the third and final American League wild card. Texas is two games behind them, and Houston is three back. Toronto lost Monday to the Baltimore Orioles and sits 3 1/2 games back at 77-80.
Chicago is also one game behind the Cleveland Guardians (81-75) in the American League Central. The White Sox finish with three games at Kansas City and three at home against the Colorado Rockies. According to NBC Chicago, they are trying to become the first team in MLB history to reach the playoffs after consecutive 100-loss seasons.
The two division winners with the best records in each league get byes into the Division Series. Entering Tuesday, those are the Tampa Bay Rays (95-60) and Cleveland. The third division winner hosts the last wild card in a best-of-three Wild Card Series from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, with the higher seed hosting all three games. As the standings sit, the White Sox would come to Globe Life Field.
Sweeps are not how Rangers manager Skip Schumaker measures a series. He looks at whether Texas prepared and played the game the right way, and he thought it did both Sunday.
“We won a series, a good series win against a tough team. Yeah, of course you would have liked to have swept and got a win,” Schumaker said. “We didn’t, but these guys fought and played hard. If you would have told me we won the first two series of the homestand, I would have taken it. And we did just that.
“And we have an off day, a much-needed off day, with a lot of these guys are feeling it a little bit,” Schumaker continued. “So hopefully we can come back and feel refreshed and play a really good Mets team that’s playing really good right now.”
After the Mets leave Thursday, Texas plays at Target Field at 7:10 p.m. CT on Friday, 3:10 p.m. CT on Saturday, and 2:10 p.m. CT on Sunday.
