Lost in all the goodwill about being above .500 and in first place on Saturday was the reality on Sunday that, oh yeah, this is the 2026 Texas Rangers. They proceeded to fall flat on their faces, losing to Toronto and a parade of relievers 7-2. Lucky for them, the Astros lost as well, so the Rangers and Astros have a six-game mad dash to the finish with the Rangers up one game in the West.

Houston plays at Seattle for two and at Sacramento for four. Texas plays the Mets at home for three, then goes to Minnesota for three. 

With Cal Quantrill going on the I.L., the question becomes, who can the Rangers count on in their rotation other than an achy, tired Jacob deGrom? The have Kumar Rocker, MacKenzie Gore, and Cody Bradford. None instills confidence. They also have Nathan Eovaldi and Jordan Montgomery. They’ve been pitching out of the bullpen after coming off long I.L. stings. They also have Jack Leiter possibly. But that’s not a confidence builder either.

Now is the time when you really wish the Rangers wouldn’t have cut payroll in the offseason and they would’ve picked up a quality arm or two. Now is the time you wish the Rangers would have found a quality starter at the trade deadline. Now is the time you wish the Rangers would have addressed their bullpen. 

But, that’s water under the bridge now. 

They’re going to have to patch together starts and hope the offense does its job.

The next six games are going to be nailbiters because of the Rangers self-inflicted neglect to invest in a team good enough to win a division. Who knows, maybe 81-81 will win it this year. We shall see. 

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