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After another loss to Mariners, Rangers season is verging on apocalypse scenario

The Rangers landed in Seattle needing a single win to clinch a postseason berth. They’re winless through the first two games.

SEATTLE — The Rangers spent the offseason stocking up on pitchers like a doomsday hoarder buys non-perishables. And, yet, here they are facing the potential apocalypse of their season fresh out of stock.

The Rangers need just one win in Seattle over the weekend to nail down a playoff berth — and perhaps the AL West, as well. The problem is: After Friday’s 8-0 loss, they are winless in the first two. And there is this another problem. You know: Pitching.

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Before Seattle punished Nathan Eovaldi and Brock Burke Friday evening, the Rangers placed Jon Gray, second on the team in innings pitched this season, on the IL with a strained muscle in his right forearm near the wrist. Gray had been the Rangers’ planned Saturday starter. They had no announced plan for Sunday.

The decision to place Gray on the 15-day IL also means he’d almost certainly be lost through at least the Division Series. But, hey, playoff pitching plans seem like a First World problem at the moment. The Rangers need to get there first.

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Instead, Texas will turn to deposed starter Andrew Heaney on Saturday. Heaney has been hit or miss all season. When his four-seam fastball is on, he can be dominant. When not, his starts got shorter and shorter. He hasn’t started since Sept. 4 when Houston rocked him. Further illustrating his extremes: He’s pitched 3.1 hitless innings over two relief outings against Seattle in the last 10 days, but he gave up seven runs in 9.2 innings over two starts against the Mariners. He will start over Martín Pérez, who could back him up in the bullpen or could be saved for an all-or-nothing start on Sunday.

“We just think he’s the guy,” Bochy said of choosing Heaney. “I’m not going to go into it more than that.”

The other potential options if the season comes down to Sunday: Rookie Cody Bradford, who has allowed 13 runs over 10 innings in his last three starts, or a bullpen game from a beleaguered and beaten bullpen. Seattle will counter with ace Luis Castillo, followed by No. 2 George Kirby.

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It is not ideal.

About the postseason: The Rangers could still win the AL West and the No. 2 seed in the AL playoffs. Or they could be left out entirely.

The Doomsday scenario: Seattle wins the last two while Houston, which beat Arizona on Friday night, splits its two final games with the Diamondbacks. All three teams would then finish at 89-73 and deciding a division champion would be decided by composite record against the other two. Under that scenario, Seattle would finish 14-12 and the Rangers 12-14. Houston, already done with its intradivision schedule, is 13-13 against the Rangers and Seattle. Seattle would be declared the winner, the Astros would assure itself of a wild card berth.

Under that scenario, the Rangers fate would then be determined by Toronto’s final two games against Tampa Bay. If Toronto wins either of those two, the Blue Jays would get to 90 wins and finish a game ahead of the Rangers. If the Jays lose the final two, the Rangers would win a tiebreaker over them for the final wild card spot.

On Friday, the game changed in the third inning. The Rangers got the first two runners on base with the middle of the lineup coming up and didn’t score. Adolis García had a particularly rough three-pitch strikeout. The Rangers left the bases loaded. They are 1 for 27 with runners in scoring position on this trip.

“He’s been throwing really good at-bats out there,” Bochy said of García. “He’d tell you it wasn’t his best at-bat. We had the right guy up there. I was hoping to put a big number up there.”

Instead, Seattle did that in the bottom of the inning. Seattle got homers from the Nos. 7 and 9 hitters to take a 2-0 lead. The Mariners added another run when center fielder Leody Taveras overran a line drive by Eugenio Suarez and reached back unsuccessfully to try to grab it. It became a run-scoring double.

The Mariners put the game away with a five-run fourth, punctuated by J.P. Crawford’s grand slam off Brock Burke. It was Crawford who kept Seattle’s season alive on Thursday with a walkoff double against Jonathan Hernández that landed over the head of outfielder Evan Carter.

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Yeah, in the first two days of a crucial make-or-break series, the Rangers have already re-lived versions of some their worst moments: A misplayed fly ball in a potential clincher and a game-changing double that landed behind an outfielder. What’s next? Does Jose Bautista sign a one-day contract with the Mariners?

On the other hand: Win a game and get the chance to make all new and better memories with a fresh October run.

The nuts and bolts of the Gray move: He was placed on the IL retroactive to Thursday and left-hander Jake Latz, who had been optioned to the minors on Wednesday, was recalled. As a result, Gray would not be eligible to be activated until Oct. 13, which is Game 5 of the AL Division Series. And the only way he could be activated at that point would be as an injury replacement if another pitcher suffers an injury during the series.

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To be fair, it was unclear if Gray would be part of a playoff rotation. The Rangers would likely only go with four starters in the playoffs. Jordan Montgomery, Nathan Eovaldi and Dane Dunning seem to have three of those spots locked up. Gray, second on the team in innings with 158, has struggled down the stretch.

“It’s tough, but we’re in a good spot,” Gray said. “I’ve just got to stay positive. We will get where we need to be and I’ll be ready.”

Gray is the fifth different starter to go to the IL this year. Jake Odorizzi has been there all year and Jacob deGrom joined him a month later. Eovaldi went out for six weeks after the All-Star Game (and hasn’t been the same since). Max Scherzer, acquired at the deadline, went down on Sept. 13. And now Gray.

It’s a whole rotation’s worth of starters. It would have doomed most other teams long ago. The Rangers are at the season’s penultimate moment.

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Do they have enough supplies left to emerge from their bunker in October and find themselves in the postseason?

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant

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