Texas Rangers embarrassed as Houston Astros sweep ends any hope of playoff chances

Texas Rangers embarrassed as Houston Astros sweep ends any hope of playoff chances

After Monday and Tuesday’s disaster, I thought, “Surely this team’s playoff hopes can’t get any dead than all the way dead.” But last night, they proved me wrong yet again. You are Locked On Rangers, your daily Texas Rangers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. You are locked on the Texas Rangers, the first and best daily Rangers podcast. I’m Bryce Patrick, a crippingly addicted Texas Rangers fan. Coming to this team for 12 seasons, including all seven, as the founder and host of this podcast. Thank you’all so much for making Lockdown Rangers your first listen every single day. If not already, you can follow me on Twitter at Bryce Patrick. You can follow the show, Lockdown Rangers. Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube where the best way you can help grow the show is comment nearly any single thing below. On today’s show, we’re talking about just a real struggle of a series in Houston. A real struggle of a season. Jacob Deg Grom’s next to last start being just real, real tough. And uh looking back at some blown losses that really could have made this season go a completely different direction. Before we get into all that, this episode is brought to you by 5Hour Energy. Enough with boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5Hour Energy Shots. go to fivehour energy.com or Amazon today. Now, before we get into all this, there’s something I want to touch on that really bothered me about yesterday. Not not not the Texas Rangers baseball team, although although that did bother me on yesterday’s show, I was I was pretty open and pretty vulnerable about uh my own mental health struggles, my battle with depression, and honestly, how this team missing the postseason is going to pretty negatively financially impact me. I mean, I was pretty open about all of that and I thought, you know, maybe I should check the comments for some some support. And instead, I found several people calling for my job. And if if you’re a person who sees someone who’s being open and honest and vulnerable in a moment about their mental health, about their struggle with depression, about their battle with just the demons inside of my brain, and your first thought is, “Hey, let’s get this dude fired. What’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you as a human being? That that is your first thought is h you know what would make this worse? Let’s go call for this dude’s job. Like just check yourself as a human being with your impulses and the things you say to people cuz they do have impacts. And I’m lucky I have a really great support system. I got a great family around me, great friends, a great girlfriend. Um, but maybe if I didn’t have that, then where would I be? Just be kinder to each other and don’t be a dick online. End of rant. Now, let’s go to another thing that very much upset me yesterday. It was the Texas Rangers baseball team. I mean, oh my goodness, it was already do or die. And they already died after Tuesday’s game. You had to win this series. You absolutely had to at least win this series to have any kind of hope at a postseason shot. It’s done. It’s very much over. It been done. But you’d think they might go out there with some pride with their ace on the hill in the final game of this series with at very least a chance to get bragging rights over the team that has dominated you for a decade now. At this point, outside of the one postseason series these two teams played against each other, the Astros have dominated the Rangers. And all you had to do heading into this week was win just one game. Just don’t get swept. That’s all you had to do was not get swept. And these 2025 Texas Rangers, what do they do but get swept? I mean, what more is there to say at this point? The swing cont decisions continue to be horrendous. I mean, truly horrendous. So many first pitch strikes right down the middle of the plate. And then without fail, pretty much every time after they get the most hitable strike one, they decide, you know what? I’m going to swing at this next pitch no matter what. And it’s almost always a ball, sometimes a very bad ball, and you’re down immediately. 02 in so many counts. everywhere up and down this lineup. The swing decisions continue to be horrendous. I really I really don’t know if if you could have gotten a worse impact from a hitting coach. I mean, the offense has been marginally better since they fired Donnie Eker at the end of the month, but not not all that much better. Not consistently. I mean, the quality of the at bats has been terrible as of late. I mean, I don’t I don’t know what the game plan is going into it. And the thing that for me that’s most frustrating, more than just really bad swing decisions. I mean, Jake Burgerer didn’t start in this one because he had three of the worst played appearances I’ve ever seen in that game on Tuesday. I mean, it doesn’t negate what he had done for the span of about a month or two uh to kind of carry this offense when nobody else was doing anything. But the thing that frustrates me the most is that you as a big league hitter when you see the same pitch multiple times, your timing on it should be better. Your recognition of that pitch should be better. And so many times this season, pitchers have just been able to abuse these hitters with just one pitch and make it, you know, see they see a slider off the plate that they don’t chase and then the next pitch is that same slider even further off the plate and then they do chase that one or a change up that, you know, just barely misses the zone, they lay off that one, and then they throw another change up right after that that’s in the dirt and they swing wildly over the top of it. I mean, that part is inexcusable. As a hitter, you have got to get better and better and better with each time you see a certain pitch. And it’s not just guys, you know, low down in this lineup. It’s not just guys like Young or Heim or Cody Freeman who had a really good day. Young and and Freeman both had really good days driving in the only two runs the Rangers scored in this one. But it’s guys like Peterson, it’s guys like Langford, it’s guys like Smith at the very top of this lineup. I mean, I don’t think I could say the same for Cory Seager. He’s the only one who when he sees a pitch multiple times, I mean, he’s going to time it up significantly better pretty much every time. But guys like Adullas, guys like Rowdy, I mean, it’s just it’s everywhere in this lineup. And if you’re not even doing that, then I don’t even know how you start to change that fundamentally. I mean, not just hitting coaches, but like hitting system. I I don’t I don’t know how you do that. I really I truly do not know how you do that as a big league hitter of seeing the same pitch over and over again and not recognizing it better, not seeing it better, not making a better swing decision, not bet making a better actual swing if you do decide to swing at that pitch. That is just like fundamental level stuff bad. That that’s the kind of stuff that really trickles down into, you know, horrible swing decision, horrible offense, not scoring, not even with runners scoring position, not doing the little things well, not being able to get a sack fly with a runner on third base. I mean, that that’s how you fail constantly in those situations, which is what this Rangers team has done offensively all year is just fail constantly. And what’s maddening is that we’ve seen it in spurts. I mean, the reason this team has such a super high run differential is is not just because the pitching staff’s been great and the defense has been great. That that’s part of it. That’s a big part of it, but also occasionally they’ve been able to just wall up these teams. I mean, so many different times where they’ve had 10 plus runs. They didn’t do it for the first like month of this season until they tacked on 15 runs against the A’s on on the 29th and then they’ve done it quite a bit since. I mean, they scored 16 runs back to in in two games out of the three or 15, no, 16 runs against the Twins twice. They scored 20 runs against the Angels. They they’ve scored 10 plus several times since then. And it it just it hasn’t been enough to stand up. hasn’t been consistent enough to just keep winning baseball games when they need to to just do that little bit more to get that win. And they really have just fallen short so many times this season and I I was fooled. I thought this team was finally going to go on a run. I thought the Little Rascals were going to hold the ship down while they were waiting on Cory Seager to maybe get back. Now it’s too late. while they were waiting for Garcia to get back and they haven’t won a single game since Adidas got back. He’s had a couple of really good defensive plays. Um the at bats have been okay. Did have an RBI made it a much closer game in that Tuesday game. Uh but still it has been such a frustrating season offensively that I don’t know what changes are going to have to be made for next year. But I do not envy Chris Young because there’s going to have to be a lot of hard decisions made next year. This show is brought to you by 5Hour Energy. Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade with 5hour energy shots. They delivered tasty caffeine in 17 bold flavors. Each 2 oz shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12 oz cup of coffee plus B vitamins and nutrients with zero sugar and zero crashes. What I love most about them is how portable they are. Big taste, tiny shot. You can take it anywhere to get that boost when you need it. I always re reach for a great fl. They got so many different types of flavors and I’ve been eyeing a couple of new ones cuz they keep on coming out with new ones. Honestly, I love how fast it kicks in and that it’s sugar-free so I don’t have to worry about crashing later. Enough with boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time for a flavor upgrade with 5hour energy shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in store and online at 5 hour energy.com or Amazon today. Shout out to the every making lockdown range your first listen every single day. On tomorrow’s show, I’ll be I’ll be talking about something with these Texas Rangers. May maybe looking ahead at Tyler Mal’s first start in over three months. Um, and whatever the heck is going to happen this weekend, the final home stand of the season. Uh, my my goodness, the way we got here was sure not fun at the very very end of it. These were building up to be some really fun games where the Rangers might just sweep this home stand. And it they still could sweep this homestead. I mean, the Marlins are not a particularly great baseball team. They just lost to the Rockies this week. That’s that’s never a good sign. The Twins sold off half their team and um while they they’ve been kind of scrappy against the Yankees this week, um I I don’t know what kind of a headsp space they’ll be in next week for three games against the Rangers who have been truly incredible on home at home and terrible on the road. Um really truly terrible. You lose four straight games in such a must-win time of the year. All of them on the road, all of them winnable. And that just sinks you. And what what really sunk them today was Jacob Grom. He’s the first one to a bit. He’s like, “This one, this one’s on me. I was not good enough in this one.” Five innings, five runs, two home runs. Did pour in six strikeouts and just one walk. Um but it it it wasn’t good enough in this one. Three of the runs came off of homers. One of them very much a cheapy. Very much uh not Crawford boxes shot, but the opposite field shot. I think we forget about Astro Stadium, how we we all know how cheap it is to just puff a home run over that little wall in left field. But it’s pretty short out there in right field as well. And that’s what Jeremy Pena did. He hit a ball the opposite field that only had a 470 expected batting average. Not hit incredibly hard, enough to be qualified for a hard hit, but only would have been a home run in uh six of 30 ballparks. And two of those are the exact same ballpark dimensions with Yankee Stadium and George M. Steinbrer Field where the Rays are playing this year which is literally just the Yankee spring training facility which is made to be the exact same dimensions as Yankee Stadium. Also would have been a homer in Cincinnati where everything’s a homer in Cleveland which I was a little surprised by that and Seattle as well. That was also a little surprising but nowhere else than those parks but a home run is a homer. The Rangers could have hit a home run there as well but they didn’t. They did not hit a single home run this one. The only extra base hit coming off the bat of Josh Young. A really nice bit of hitting, hitting a double into the gap there. He’s had some pretty quality at bats in this series. Also a couple of at bats that have been uh wanting for sure, but with giving up these five runs, Jacob Deg Gro’s RA is now north of three. He has m will he even make one start between now and the end of this season, the final nine games? I I think probably, yes, but just one more start. He would have been lined up for uh well, I guess he will still probably be lined up for the first round, the f that first game on on Tuesday of the uh wild card series, but the Rangers almost assuredly won’t be in it. He ends he is going to end his year with maybe a little over 170 innings. That’s that’s much more than he thought at the start of this year. I mean, he’s already made 29 starts. He has RA. It’s just barely over three at 301. So, a good start, a good final start of the season. Maybe five shutout innings that gets that down below three. But it’s been rough these last three starts, including two of them against Houston in massive must-win games that the Rangers just didn’t. They just couldn’t. I mean, the game on on September 6th that he started against the Astros, he did give up three runs in five and a third innings, but that one turned up to be a blowout because Caleb Bosley could not hold it close at the end of that one looked a lot bigger of a blowout than it actually was. Um, but the Rangers offense couldn’t do much to support him anyway. So, it it didn’t particularly matter. Even even that game against the Mets, I mean, he gave up three runs in that inning and then was was mostly nails outside of that. I mean, seven innings strong for him in that return to City Field. Uh, but this one this one’s just this one’s just tough. This one’s just pretty inexcusable. And a couple of things break a little bit differently and he might have given up just one run, just two runs in this one, but but he didn’t. I mean, in that first inning, White Langford very nearly makes a catch out there in center field. I mean, it’s it’s a tough catch and there’s a lot of people acting like, “Oh, that’s just, you know, that’s just such a routine play for White Langford to make, you know, running back in a dead sprint right at the wall in center field.” That ball had hit a 780 expected batting averages, hit 104.3 miles an hour off the bat of Jeremy Pñena. That’s that’s not 100% on Langford. And then Carlos Korea gets a weak single, gets a couple of strikeouts to bounce back in that one. And then Yiner Diaz hits a ball nearly 105 miles an hour. Just a not welllocated fast ball that uh ends up being two runs and that was enough to get the Astros lead to get them momentum which is the one thing that the Rangers could not have happen in this one. They could not if they wanted to win they did it. They couldn’t have it happen, but they did have it happen to get the Astros confidence early on in this game. And that was that that was that at this point. I mean, it was just not good enough. And these last three starts, he’s a 573 RA in the month of September. 573. That’s bad. That’s not okay. That’s not middling. That’s not a little bit subpar. That’s bad. That’s tough. And he’ll be the first one to tell you this is also a massive, massive workload on Jacob Deg Grom. He made three starts last year in the big leagues, not even 11 innings between those three starts. He made six starts in 2023, just barely over 30 innings in that one. And and then 2022 came back at the end of the year through 11 starts, 64 innings. He’s got 29 this year. You combine the last three years, that’s 20 starts. He has already made he’s going to make 50% more starts this year than the last three years combined. I don’t care if you’re Jacob Deg Grom. I don’t care if you’re Justin Verlander. I don’t care if you’re Nolan Freaking Ryan. If you’ve missed most of the last three years, three, four years and you come back and take on a full starter workload. I mean, they only skipped one start of his this year. He’s gonna make 30 starts. There haven’t been a whole lot of Rangers to make 30 starts in the last couple years anywhere at all. Let alone ones that are coming off of their second Tommy John surgery and are 37 years old. This no matter what he does in the final start, even if he goes, you know, four innings and gives up six runs and the year stays above three, this is still a phenomenal season from Jacob Deg Grom. It’s just incredibly frustrating that this team cannot capitalize with him on the mound. There were a lot of good starts by Jacob Deg Grom earlier on in the season where the Rangers just could not pull off a win including one of their last times in h the last time that they were in Houston before this series. Jacob Grom pitched really really well and the offense was lagging because the Angels decide to have night games at the end of their series so that everybody’s exhausted um the next time that they go and play it away series, the immediate preceding series. I don’t I don’t know why the Angels do that, but they also do that. And they also could have scored more than those two runs they scored for Deg Grom in that one that the Rangers only lost in extra innings. I mean, they had a lot of chances in that one that really went wanting. And you know, there’s so many other starts by Jacob Deg Grom that he was good in, but the Rangers just could not get the win across in that one. I mean, there was a start against the White Sox. There was a start earlier on against the Yankees where Jacob Grom was really great. They couldn’t get it done. I mean, there there’s that start against the Dodgers where he gave up a solo homer to start the game and then was absolutely nails from there on out and Jacob Grom got tagged with a loss because the Rangers could not mount any offense back on April 18th. That was that was a tough one. Now, I’m not saying Jacob Grom has been perfect this year by by no means. There have been some bad Jacob Deg Grom starts, including in some crucial games like early on against the Mariners, his worst start of the year. I I’d say that was his worst start of the I mean, he just got clubbed by the Mars on the 11th in a game that the Rangers lost. They nearly came back on, but they they didn’t they weren’t able to come back. There were a couple of games in Anaheim against the Angels where he was just straight up bad. I mean, that game two games in July on the 28th and on the 7th. He gave up five runs on the 28th and he gave up three runs in a game where the Rangers jumped off to an early lead and gave him a lot of run support in that game on the seventh, but the Rangers were able to come out and and win that one. they lost in an incredibly frustrating and very hard to explain game against a very bad Angels team. I mean, it has been infuriating and even on the the 28th 25th, excuse me, against against the Angels where he wasn’t bad by that by that much of a stretch of the imagination. I mean, he had two runs in five innings and struck out seven. That was that was a pretty good start, but he got tagged with the loss because the Rangers offense couldn’t do much of anything. And heck, even on the 15th, that start before it in Toronto, that was the bullpin blowup game where Danny Kulum couldn’t do much of anything and Phil Mton couldn’t do much of anything that the Rangers absolutely should have won where Jacob Grom was incredible with five shutout innings against Toronto, a team that is incredibly good and incredibly good at home. But alas, the Rangers could not get it done. And uh it is just incredibly frustrating to watch yet another Jacob Grom start go to waste. This time it was Jacob Gro’s fault, but it hasn’t been his fault every time. This show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you’re going to end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. 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Use lock code lockdown mob at monikmmononeymoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monikmoney.com with code lockdown MLB. Check the making locked on Rangers your first listed every single day after every single game. Jeff Biggs is with you with a locked on Rangers postcast reacting live to all nine games that we have left and almost assuredly no postseason games in your live in your locked on Rangers podcast feeds on YouTube and wherever you get those podcasts. Now man, I am just incredibly frustrated with this baseball team that uh should have had this season go a different way. I mean they really should have. This is a team with a plus 87 run differential. They has a worse record than the Guardians who have a minus 255 run differential. That’s incredibly infuriating. The Raiders are two games behind them. Finally, the Mariners had their what felt like 86 yearlong win streak snapped last night in a game where Adam Frasier had a two-run homer. And uh that that is not how I expected that losing streak to end. And now the Mariners are back in that final wild card spot. The Astros are back at top the AL West. What a nightmare for everybody involved. And the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners are tied for that final wildcard spot at 83 and 69, which is nice. And it would be nice if that was how many losses the Texas Rangers had. Alas, that is not the case. The Rangers really dug themselves into a hole with just so many close losses. And I’m really going back and thinking about some of these games, especially against the Astros. I mean, this season series should have been done and wrapped up because the Rangers, they probably should have won all four games of that first series that they played. I thinking about those games and I went back and looked and at how close they were. I mean, the one that’s most maddening to me was the Jack Lighter near no. That was just such a weird game where he completely outdooled Valdez in that one. and he had a three nothing lead in that fourth inning he was allowing a no hitter through the first five six innings and then in the seventh inning a Yiner Diaz homer broke up that no no uh while he was able to finish off that seventh inning he comes back for the eighth and allows a couple of singles and then Chris Martin comes into that game with a 3-1 lead at that point and uh Chris Martin throws a pitch singular and then gets hurt and the Rangers have to scramble and bring in Robert Garcia, who gives up a homer, a three-run homer. Near nearly got out of it. I mean, really truly nearly got out of it. And a one of those two hits that Jack Lighter gave up in that inning should have been a called strike, three of multiple pitches that were completely in the zone that uh had that gone just literally one ball and strike call, how different this season could have been. That would have been a win. The Rangers would have a be out two and a half games, four, three and a half games at this point with the tiebreaker over the Astros at least and that would have been completely different. And then you look at the other game they lost in that series. That was a game where Nathan Yvaldi was fantastic. Five and two/3 shutout innings. Maybe could have finished off the six and Hobie Milner comes on and and does a decent job. Then gives up a couple hits and gets pulled. And then that’s Sean Armstrong’s one bad outing of the season. He really didn’t have that many just straight up terrible outings. This one, this was it. He walked a couple, gave up a single, and then gave up a massive, massive home run to at that point pushes RA to 492. I mean, how good he’s been since that outing. The Rangers were leading in that game two nothing and uh they couldn’t finish it off. They could not finish it off and get that win. Had they gotten that win, had Shawn Armstrong not given up that three-run homer, then maybe this is a completely different game. Maybe the Rangers win this game and maybe the Rangers do win the season series. I I I don’t know. It could have gone incredibly differently. It’s just thing after thing after thing with this Rangers team of just how many different little breaks could have gone slightly in their favor. And they didn’t. They just didn’t like those two games against Steinbecks. Had the Rangers won those, they’re in a much different spot. Had the Rangers won just one of these three games. They’re in a completely different spot. And that’s not even to mention all the games that they blew against the Seattle Mariners. I mean, losing three out of the four games in that series in Seattle right after the trade deadline, that that was brutal. Not to mention the two games they lost at Anaheim right before that. I mean, it’s crazy. They were on a nine-game winning streak at that point and then or excuse me, a sevengame winning streak at that point and had won nine of 10 since the All-Star break and then those two incredibly frustrating outings against the Angels. I mean, there are just so many more instances of games that I can point to in the season where I was like, uh, if that went differently, if that series against the Rays where the Rangers got swept in two games they were leading late. I mean that defensive gau from Kamar Rocker in the middle game of that series and then just more bullpen meltdown madness in that game against Tampa Bay at the very end of that series. Heck, and not to mention the game right after that, the Patrick Corbin, eight innings of two-run ball, a complete game loss because the offense couldn’t do anything anything. I mean, there’s a million games that have gone different ways there, and there’s not that many in my mind that the Rangers felt like didn’t deserve to win. There were a few of them for sure. That game where Nathan Evaldi was just absolutely trounced by Arizona. The Rangers come back in miracle fashion to win. That that felt like one the Rangers didn’t necessarily deserve. That one where Jock Peterson comes in and gets a pinch hit gametying homer when he’s not really out of that slump where the Rangers had just lost that horrible series in Seattle. They come home and they build momentum that way. That felt like one the Rangers did not deserve to win. I mean, there have been a few other ones like that first game against the Guardians on the 22nd where the Rangers come back in miracle fashion, but there haven’t been that many of those. There have been a lot more games where the Rangers had a lead, should have held it, blew it, and then end up leaving that game incredibly frustrated with another missed opportunity. I mean, this team has all the talent in the world. This is the best pitching staff I’ve ever seen on a Texas Rangers roster, and it’s it’s not close. It is not close at all how much better this pitching staff has been than anything that’s come before it. Nathan Eioaldi, absolutely godlike performance. I mean, Jacob Grom, I just talked about Ad Nauseium. He was phenomenal this season in such difficult context. I mean, Tyl Tyler Mlly was fantastic this year. Patrick Corbin a million times better than you could have possibly expected. He’s had a really good season for the Rangers. Jack Lighter up and down season, but he’s his highs have been incredibly high. I mean, those first two, three starts of the season, he looked untouchable. And then he’s had some stretches down here in the second half. Not not that last game. Not not that game against Houston. That that was tough. That was not a great start by Jack Lighter. He’ll he’ll be the first one to tell you. It was pretty solid in the context, but could have gone a significantly different way in and the Rangers wish it did. And then Tyler Mi with what he’s done this year in his limited amount of work. And we we’ll see one more start from him on Friday. That’ll probably be his last start of the season, I would imagine. May maybe he gets one more after that. Maybe he gets all the way up to 16 starts, but um he was fantastic in his 14 starts so far this season. And Cory Ziger is going to have a six- win season at in 102 games. That’s incredibly difficult. White Langford is going to have a near he might have a five and a half war season at 5.3 right now in 130 games. He is 23 years old. He has been fantastic this year. It’s also been a little frustrating because there have been some he had so many big moments last year and you know from my recollection from just the eye test like grounding in that double play last night in a big spot. You get the first two runners on and then you have your best hitter at the plate and then he grounds into a pretty routine double play that’s incredibly infuriating. Um but in in you know clutch situations in high leverage situations he had done pretty well for this season. He’s hitting over 300. He’s 895 OPS in those situations with two outs with runners in scoring position. He’s hitting over 340 with a 10,083 ops. But when it’s late and close, the situation where he absolutely dominated last year. I mean, so many walk-offs, so many big huge moments like that three-run homer over the monster in Fenway, like that walk-off grand slam against the Yankees. I mean, he had what, three walk-offs last year, including two walk-off homers. I mean, he was incredibly big in clutch situations last year. And when it’s late and close this year, he’s hitting 235 with a 699 OPS, 23 strike nearly twice as many strikeouts as walks in 81 plate appearances. That’s it’s not a deal. Again, that’s not that big a sample size. And I I don’t think it’s because White Langford is pushing. May maybe it is. Maybe he has felt a lot more pressure with Cory Seager whenever he’s out to just be that guy cuz Rangers kind of just need him to be that guy at this point. And he hasn’t been as much so as last year. Still an incredible season. still a better overall season because the lows with Langford have not been nearly as low as they were at points in last year’s season. But it just it hasn’t quite been enough. And it’s not just on Langford. It’s it’s on everybody on this roster, including unfortunately Jacob Grom in this one in just what was a mustwin series where you at least had to win one game to get some bragging rights over the team you hate the most. And once again, this team just could not quite do it. That’s going to do it for today’s show. Thank you all so much for listening and subscribing. And until next time, don’t forget to enjoy baseball.

The Texas Rangers got swept by the Houston Astros in a disastrous series finale where Jacob deGrom just didn’t have it and the offense couldn’t get going.

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