ARLINGTON — Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young sat inside the home dugout at Globe Life Field six days ago and acknowledged that, while recent trends had been positive, the week ahead was set to “determine a lot” about the team’s trade deadline directions.
Yeah, well, about that.
“I mean,” left fielder Wyatt Langford said Sunday afternoon before the team left Texas for a six-game West Coast trip, “I think we did as good as possibly could have.”
He couldn’t exaggerate if he tried.
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The Rangers trounced the Atlanta Braves 8-1 in Sunday’s series finale to clinch a sixth-straight win, a second-straight series sweep and finish one of the most-productive homestands in club history with just three days until the July 31 trade deadline.
They won eight of their first nine games after the All-Star break, with one loss vs. possibly baseball’s best pitcher in Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, to set a franchise record for win percentage in a single homestand of nine games or more. They strung together a sequence of wins that made up their single-best stretch of baseball this season, garnered production from every corner of their roster, won series against two first-place teams, handled their business against two slumping teams and made up significant ground in both the American League West and Wild Card race.
The Rangers trailed the first-place Houston Astros by nine-and-a-half games on the morning of July 11 and were three-and-a-half games back of the third Wild Card spot after a West Coast road trip littered with missed opportunities and frustrating losses.
They’ve gone 11-2 in the 16 days since, pulled themselves to a season-high six games above .500, raced to within four games back of the division lead where they have the same record as the second-place Seattle Mariners in both the AL West and in the Wild Card race. The Mariners, whom the Rangers will play immediately after the trade deadline, hold the tiebreaker. It’s the closest that the Rangers have been to a postseason position since May 17.
“I think we’ve put ourselves in position now to kind of control our own destiny,” super utility man Josh Smith said Sunday after he recorded three hits, including a home run, in the win. “We can kind of make a run towards it.”
The run that Smith speaks of would be best aided by additions before Thursday’s deadline. The Rangers — who spent the bulk of their first half in search of a consistent offense to pair with its league-best rotation — could use an additional high-leverage relief pitcher and possibly a right-handed bat to help them vs. southpaws.
It only remained a question as to whether the Rangers, who finished the first half with a record under .500 and had more questions than answers in regards to their situational offense, were worth the further investment of funds or prospect capital.
Related:It’s time for Texas Rangers ownership to pony up at MLB trade deadline
In early July, when Young spoke to The Dallas Morning News about the direction of the team, the message centered upon the club’s ability to turn encouraging signs into results. Monday, when he spoke again, it revolved around whether the Rangers could continue to stack wins.
How about now?
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy grinned at the question.
“We’ve said all along, we believe in this team, [Young] and I have said it,” Bochy said. “We know that we are a better team than what we were in that first half offensively. This is a talented club that can explode offensively and they’re starting to do it more often.”
The Rangers have scored the third-most runs in baseball in the last 30 days behind a host of resurgent stars. Shortstop Corey Seager, who extended his league-best on base streak to 27 games with a first-inning walk Sunday, has a 1.129 OPS in the last month that’s bested by just two others. Second baseman Marcus Semien shook his slow start and, on Saturday, played hero in what was arguably the team’s best win this season. Third baseman Josh Jung returned from his minor league hiatus Monday and has had more hits than any Ranger since.
They finished the nine-game home set with a plus-25 run differential vs. the Tigers, Athletics and Braves. They showed a capacity to stack early leads and hold onto them thanks to a league-best rotation and an ever-flexible veteran bullpen. They answered questions — like their struggles against left-handed pitchers or their ability to rally late and win extra inning games — and altogether performed like a group that was wholly cognizant of the position that it’s in.
“I just think we’re trying to play good,” Seager said when asked if the club felt urgency near the deadline. “It’s as simple as that.”
Seager, Bochy and the rest of the Rangers were not quick to specifically verbalize their desire to buy at the deadline per se. Their on-field actions and the deficits they’ve erased, though, spoke on their collective behalf.
“When you approach that deadline, you want to be in the race,” Bochy said. “I think they knew that, they felt it and they responded.”
The front office now has its chance to respond.
The team already did its part and then some.
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