Texas Rangers ride back into AL Wildcard race

The Rangers have ridden back into the AL playoff race

The Texas Rangers have been champions of the American League West Division in four of the last seven years. In eight of the last nine they have either won the division or finished as the runners-up.

But for much of the 2017 campaign, the Rangers struggled. Jeff Banister‘s squad sat with a 13-20 mark just a little more than one month into the season.

Since then this has been a roller coaster ride of a year for the ball club. Texas ran off 10 straight wins to get back on the winning side of the ledger. But then the Rangers followed that winning streak up by losing 12 of their next 16 contests. That was followed by eight wins in the next 10 games.

Back and forth it has gone like that all year. Just three weeks ago, on August 27, Texas was 64-66 and appeared headed towards a long off-season. The Rangers were just three games off the AL Wildcard pace at that point. But there were also four other teams in front of them vying for that same final playoff berth.

Flash-forward three weeks. Following Monday night’s 5-3 victory over the division rival Seattle Mariners, the Rangers sit just two games off that postseason pace.

Wins in eight of their last 11 games have Texas now at 72-71. They are two games behind the Minnesota Twins in the race for the final AL Wildcard. The AL West-rival Los Angeles Angels are the only other team ahead of them. The Angels sit just a game ahead of the Rangers.

Streaking Rangers powered by Joey Gallo

On Friday night at Tigers Stadium, the Texas Rangers held off the host Detroit Tigers by a 5-3 score. The victory was a 10th straight for the streaking Rangers.

Now at 23-20, they have slipped to within 6.5 games of their in-state AL West Division rivals, the Houston Astros.

The Rangers have made this move without their future Hall of Fame third baseman Adrian Beltre in the lineup. Beltre injured his right calf just one week into the 2017 season, and has been on the Disabled List ever since.

Beltre is now on the road to recovery. Earlier this week, Jeff Wilson of the Star-Telegram reported that his return to the lineup is likely just a couple of weeks away. Wilson quoted Beltre after the Rangers training staff had allowed the now 38-year old to test the calf by running on it at half speed:

“It’s on the right track. I just have to make sure my legs are in shape and not to have any setbacks. So far, the plan the trainers have for me has been working, and I’m trying to follow that plan.”

Stepping into Beltre’s place in the lineup has been the man who is perhaps the future at the Hot Corner in Texas. Joey Gallo is a 23-year old who has been one of the club’s top prospects for years.

Gallo was the Rangers supplemental first round choice at 39th overall in the 2012 MLB Amateur Draft out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas.