Advertisement
This is member-exclusive content
icon/ui/info filled

sportsRangers

Resilient Rangers beat Mariners to clinch first MLB postseason berth since 2016

Next up for the Rangers: Locking up the AL West division title.

Update:
Updated 11:06 p.m. with postgame quotes from Bruce Bochy, Marcus Semien and more.

SEATTLE — With a revamped starting rotation, the Rangers began this season wanting to play meaningful baseball in September for the first time in a while.

They did. And liked it so much, they will try the same thing in October.

After six consecutive losing seasons, perhaps the most resilient Rangers team in the club’s 52-season history in Texas booked its first trip to the postseason since 2016 on Saturday with a 6-1 win over Seattle. It clinched at least a wild-card berth.

Rangers

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.

Or with:

If the Rangers win on Sunday, they will win the AL West and will skip the Wild Card Series to host the Division Series at Globe Life Field starting Saturday. If they lose Sunday and Houston wins, they will be awarded the second wild card and will travel to Tampa Bay for the best-of-three Wild Card series with the Rays.

Advertisement

They will worry about that when the time comes. On Saturday, after big hits from guys who were acquired at the outset of their most recent rebuild, a gutty pitching effort from an exiled starter and the final four outs by the player who has been in the organization the longest, they didn’t wait to find out who or where they might play.

They didn’t even wait for the outcome of the Houston-Arizona game Saturday night, which could have given them the division title had the Astros lost.

They got right to the poppin’.

Advertisement
Texas Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, left, has beer poured on him by shortstop Corey...
Texas Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, left, has beer poured on him by shortstop Corey Seager, right, as they celebrate clinching a playoff spot in the American League after a 6-1 win over the Seattle Mariners in a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)(Lindsey Wasson / ASSOCIATED PRESS)

“You work too hard to pass this up,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We’ve still got work to do. We’re still trying to win this division. But you get here, you enjoy it. We’ve had plenty of ups and downs. We’ve been through some stuff. You get to this point, you celebrate. That’s what I told them and that’s what we’re doing.”

To be fair, it was somewhat restrained. A couple of carts of cheap champagne. Some chanting. And then most of the team retired to the players’ lounge to watch the final inning of the Astros-Diamondbacks game. The Astros held on for a 1-0 win, meaning the real celebration would have to wait for another day. Marcus Semien, one of the core pieces of the Rangers’ free agency splurge to jump a longer rebuild, and pitcher Andrew Heaney, who started on Saturday, each grabbed Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and chowed down.

Within an hour of the game’s end, the plastic tarp on the floor that absorbed most of the champagne was already being picked up. For crying out loud, the last time the Rangers clinched a playoff berth in Seattle, way back in 1998, the old Kingdome’s carpeting still sloshed and reeked of a mix of champagne, beer and Gatorade two days later.

Besides, if the Rangers win again on Sunday against a Seattle team now officially eliminated from postseason consideration, they can do the whole bottle-popping thing all over again.

“This is Step 1,” Semien said. “But our goal is to win the division. We can do that tomorrow. We control our own destiny.”

The Rangers have been tested and tested again all year. They were tested in this series, too, losing the first two games to keep Seattle’s hopes and Ranger fans’ nightmares alive. On Saturday, though, the win was a story of bouncing back, a microcosm of the season.

Advertisement

The offense, which had been the team’s strength all year, snapped from a swing-for-the-fences mentality to a do-what-it-takes approach against Seattle ace Luis Castillo. The offense had been in a rut all week, with just one hit in 27 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

They took walks, spoiled pitches, shortened up swings and cranked up the pitch count from the start. It all boiled over into a four-run rout in the third. Fittingly, the first two pieces acquired in the rebuild on which the Rangers embarked in 2021 — Nathaniel Lowe and Jonah Heim — drove in the first three runs with a pair of two-strike singles.

Lowe got the bat out in front of his personal nemesis, a high-velocity fastball, and singled up the middle. Heim fouled off three straight 0-2 pitches before staying back long enough to reach out and poke a changeup back through the middle to score two runs. He also forced in another run with a bases-loaded walk in the fourth.

Advertisement

“After posting the worst month of my career when I wanted it the most, to battle against one of the best starters in the league and find a hole, yes, it was absolutely amazing,” said Lowe, who has struggled in September and been dropped in the order. “It was everything you could ask for.”

The pitching effort was one of redemption, too. Andrew Heaney, exiled to the bullpen early in September, moved back to the rotation to replace injured Jon Gray and took a shutout to the fifth. Josh Sborz, who was getting chased by Houston at the depths of the Rangers’ slump in early September, pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth and added a pristine seventh.

The 48 hours leading up to Saturday’s clinch were just another of many examples. They’ve been bedeviled by bullpen blowups and rotation injuries all year.

On Thursday, the Rangers lost a 2-1 ninth-inning lead in a walkoff defeat. On Friday, they placed scheduled Saturday starter Jon Gray on the IL with a strained muscle in his lower forearm near the wrist, which would likely take him out of any possibility of pitching in the Division Series. Then Seattle boat-raced the pitching staff in an 8-0 win.

Advertisement

Two days of gut punches, followed by a strong recovery. The Rangers warned you this would be the trend on Opening Day. They fell behind defending NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies by five runs just four innings into the season. They responded with a nine-spot in the fifth. Went on to sweep the Phightin’ Phils, too.

Along the way, the Rangers lost Jacob deGrom, winner of two Cy Youngs, traded for Max Scherzer, winner of three, and lost him, too. That’s a quintuple of Cy Youngs. Or something like that. It’s a lot.

They lost Corey Seager for a month, then again for two weeks. In between, Seager made the AL All-Star team, along with five of his teammates. Over the next two months, four of those five spent time on the injured list, several of them concurrently.

Advertisement

And, of course, the Rangers lost games in the most heartbreaking fashion. For all the money Ray Davis sunk into this team — and it’s a club-record of nearly $240 million now — the one area the Rangers couldn’t ever seem to solve was the one area they didn’t really address over the winter. Say it together now: Starts with “bull.” Know what you are thinking, but, no, it ends with “pen.”

They’ve blown 32 saves in 62 chances. It’s a 48% save conversion rate. It is the worst by a team to ever make the postseason. They blew back-to-back saves in Cincinnati in April, deposed closer Jose Leclerc, and came back to win four of the next five.

Two weeks later, Will Smith, the first interim closer, blew a three-run, ninth-inning lead in the series opener at Anaheim. The Rangers came back to win the next three and five of the next six.

So, it would go. Every time it seemed like the Rangers might really just run away with the AL West, a bullpen blunder or an injury would keep them within range of Houston, which has won every AL West title since 2017 with the exception of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and Seattle.

Advertisement

“You are going to be tested; that’s going to happen,” said Bochy, who will be taking a team to the playoffs for the ninth time in his 26 seasons managing. “That’s not the question. The question is how you respond. They have always responded. This team has shown resilience all year. Maybe there have been more ebbs and flows this year. It’s been intense. But it’s been fun. Every year is different.”

They saved the best example of that for last. They went an MLB-worst 4-16 over a 20-game stretch from mid-August to early September. Lost the division lead with it. Were trounced by the Astros in Texas.

And then: More resilience.

Advertisement

Since Sept. 9, the Rangers are 14-7. They responded to the worst 20-game stretch in the majors with the best current 21-game stretch. They got healthy, called up Evan Carter and even seem to have gotten their closer role in order with the resurgence of Jose Leclerc. In what was then a wild-card showdown, they swept four games at Toronto. Followed it up a week later by sweeping three from Seattle in Arlington to wrestle back control of the division.

It’s been a roller coaster. Who doesn’t like roller coasters? They always have the longest lines at the amusement park.

“Well, I don’t,” Bochy said of actual amusement park roller coasters. “That ship has sailed. I don’t need that much adventure in my life.”

He’ll leave that to the kids and Fright Fest at Six Flags Over Texas. He — and the Rangers — will be a little busy anyway. They will once again be playing meaningful games in October.

Advertisement

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant

Related Stories
View More

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

Advertisement

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.

Texas Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, left, celebrates with teammates after clinching...
Texas Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, left, celebrates with teammates after clinching a playoff spot in the American League following a 6-1 win over the Seattle Mariners in a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)(Lindsey Wasson / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The Texas Rangers celebrate clinching a playoff spot in the American League after a 6-1 win...
The Texas Rangers celebrate clinching a playoff spot in the American League after a 6-1 win over the Seattle Mariners in a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)(Lindsey Wasson / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Texas Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien celebrates clinching a playoff spot in the...
Texas Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien celebrates clinching a playoff spot in the American League with teammates after a 6-1 win over the Seattle Mariners in a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)(Lindsey Wasson / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Advertisement
Texas Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, right, celebrates clinching a playoff spot in...
Texas Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, right, celebrates clinching a playoff spot in the American League with teammates after a 6-1 win over the Seattle Mariners in a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)(Lindsey Wasson / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Texas Rangers right fielder Adolis García, wearing chain, celebrates clinching a playoff...
Texas Rangers right fielder Adolis García, wearing chain, celebrates clinching a playoff spot in the American League with teammates after a 6-1 win over the Seattle Mariners in a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)(Lindsey Wasson / ASSOCIATED PRESS)