Series Thread: Astros invade Globe Life for deciding series 9/2-9/4

[WastinSomeTime]

I felt like this 10 game homestand would tell a lot about the Rangers and 9 games into it they are 8-1 and 5-0 against their nearest competitors. Would a success this has been. Just needed that home cooking.

 

[Rudy_Rangerfan]

I felt like this 10 game homestand would tell a lot about the Rangers and 9 games into it they are 8-1 and 5-0 against their nearest competitors. Would a success this has been. Just needed that home cooking.

..we had a brutal schedule

 

[RevSader]

Jesus...this team is fun

 

[WastinSomeTime]

..we had a brutal schedule

Forgot to mention that. 4 against Cleveland, 3 against Seattle and finish the 3rd against Houston tomorrow. So it was not a gimme type of a homestand. Very enjoyable in spite of the BP. Offense has made it fun.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Jesus...this team is fun

Fun is an understatement! I loved the Cruz-Napoli-MY-Cliff Lee team, but this one is something else.

 

[romeo212000]

Fun is an understatement! I loved the Cruz-Napoli-MY-Cliff Lee team, but this one is something else.

Amazing considering how un-fun they were a few weeks ago.

 

[WilltheThrill]

..we had a brutal schedule

Absolutely brutal. Now we get to finish the season against the A's, Angels, Brewers, and Rays, while the Astros get the Indians and the Cubs.

Suck it, Luhnow.

 

[romeo212000]

Oh, I just realized this win is even more satisfying. Fuck your Houston.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Absolutely brutal. Now we get to finish the season against the A's, Angels, Brewers, and Rays, while the Astros get the Indians and the Cubs.

Suck it, Luhnow.

And them and Seattle get to beat each others brains in for 6 games.

 

[romeo212000]

Come on, Rangers. I need a championship team so bad. Please win the World Series. I'll name my first born child Adrian.

 

[RevSader]

Fun is an understatement! I loved the Cruz-Napoli-MY-Cliff Lee team, but this one is something else.

2011 was the best I've ever seen and these guys don't come close in terms overall sharpness, but I still love the shit out of this team. Even when they piss me off...

 

[RevSader]

Absolutely brutal. Now we get to finish the season against the A's, Angels, Brewers, and Rays, while the Astros get the Indians and the Cubs.

Suck it, Luhnow.

Texas is under .500 vs under .500 teams...I don't get it. We whip up on the Astros and other .500 teams.

 

[romeo212000]

2011 was the best I've ever seen and these guys don't come close in terms overall sharpness, but I still love the shit out of this team. Even when they piss me off...

This team isn't on that level, but they do seem to have a clutch gene. Maybe that's what gets us to the promised land.

 

[RevSader]

This team isn't on that level, but they do seem to have a clutch gene. Maybe that's what gets us to the promised land.

They go 15-12 games over .500 and they will beat the franchise record for wins...

 

[romeo212000]

They go 15-12 games over .500 and they will beat the franchise record for wins...

Well good teams are what we'll have to beat in October.

 

[jaar01]

I want to sweep the Astros so bad. But even if we don't this homestand has been a smashing success. The bats finally started showing up. Now let's get the bullpen right again and a healthy Colby Lewis and the sky's the limit.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Neftali Feliz came out of the game after feeling pain on a pitch

 

[Bmurph]

Fun owning this team too

And we do own their asses this year! 12-4 vs these MF'ers is nice, lets make it 13-4 tomorrow

 

[Bmurph]

Rangers dominating Astros, Mariners and close games en route to AL West title
The Rangers are putting together an historic season in one-run games

• by Matt Snyder
• @MattSnyderCBS
• 2h ago • 3 min read

Much like we basically know the NL East is going to the Nationals and the NL Central is definitely going to the Cubs, the AL West is all but decided here on Sept. 3. The Texas Rangers have a 10 1/2-game lead over the Astros after yet another head-to-head victory on Saturday, 12-4 over Houston.

Entering Saturday, SportsLine gave the Rangers a 99.8 percent chance of winning the AL West. After another win over the Astros, it should be 100 percent heading into Sunday. There are only 26 games left. To put this into perspective, if the Rangers were to go 8-18 the rest of the way, the Astros would have to go 19-8 in order to end up in a tie.

Is that possible? Sure. Obviously it's possible. Is it plausible? No, it's really not.

Remember that historic Red Sox collapse in 2011, when the Rays ran them down and it culminated with Evan Longoria's walk-off homer/the Red Sox losing in walk-off fashion to the Orioles? The Rays were nine games back on Sept. 3. They went 16-8 while the Red Sox went 6-18 the rest of the way. That was drastic, and in the case of the Rangers and Astros, even that wouldn't get it done for Houston. They'd need a more extreme comeback. The odds are heavily stacked against that, too, when looking at the schedule.

Of the Rangers' 26 games left, 18 come against terrible teams (Angels, A's, Brewers, Rays). After Sunday's game in Texas, the Astros have four in Cleveland and then host the Cubs for three.

So we can probably feel at least mildly safe in just saying this thing is over. I'd feel strong enough to wager something hefty, if anyone would actually take the Astros side.

This has been happening an awful lot for the Rangers this season. USATSI
How it happened on Saturday was -- nevermind. It doesn't matter, other than to say that the Rangers have totally just crushed their opposition to the point of it surely being demoralizing. They've been doing it all season. It's one of the more remarkable displays on divisional dominance in head-to-heads in recent memory.

The Rangers are now 13-2 against the Astros. Earlier this week, they effectively ruined the Mariners' playoff chances with a sweep and sit 11-4 against Seattle.

So the Rangers are 24-6 against the two other playoff contenders in their division. That's a 162-game pace of 130 wins. They completely and utterly own the Astros and Mariners.

How bad is it? They've actually won the division solely because of the head-to-head dominance.

Check this out. If we take out the games the Rangers have played against the Astros and Mariners, here are the winning percentages of the three teams:

Astros, .575 (162-game pace of 93 wins)
Rangers, .547 (162-game pace of 89 wins)
Mariners, .546 (162-game pace of 88 wins)

That would have been quite the race, if the Mariners or certainly the Astros could hang with the Rangers when they play them. They just can't. The entire division has swung based on one team dominating the head-to-head matchups.

The Rangers are an interesting team. They've lost Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo to injuries. The current rotation beyond Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish hasn't been very good -- and Darvish has only made 12 starts. The bullpen was awful for a while and still entered Saturday with a 4.76 ERA (27th in baseball). They didn't have a productive catcher until the trade deadline, either.

We've already discussed the head-to-head dominance of their competitors, but they've also been magic in one-run games. They are 30-8 in such affairs. That is the best record in baseball history in one-run games. Here's the top five:

1. 2016 Rangers, 30-8
2. 2012 Orioles, 29-9
3. 1981 Orioles, 21-7
4. 1908 Pirates, 33-12
5. 1970 Orioles, 40-15

(Full list on baseball-reference.com play index)

The new-school way of thinking is to see all of this and declare that the Rangers have actually been more lucky than good and they'll stop being so lucky soon. We've also been hearing that all season. Once the playoffs begin, everything is reset to zero, and you'll be looking at a Rangers team that is unbelievably confident in themselves in close games and that has as much talent as anyone. They can also use a Darvish/Hamels combo for three games in the divisional round and four games in the ALCS and/or World Series should they advance.

They've gotten this far with dominating important head-to-head matchups and winning close games. Who is to say it can't continue?


I could read this over and over!

 

[RevSader]

And we do own their asses this year! 12-4 vs these MF'ers is nice, lets make it 13-4 tomorrow

13-2