Crunch time starts now for Rangers after difficult road trip

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry's Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ARLINGTON -- We’ve heard it all season long.

“This is an opportunity for this club.”

It’s been written right here in this newsletter. Every road trip, every stretch, it has all felt like an opportunity for the Rangers to control their own destiny as they try to return to the postseason. But in a seven-game, seven-day road trip against the Angels and Athletics, Texas went 2-5, remaining in second place in the American League West for the 17th straight day.

At the conclusion of Monday’s slate of games on the team’s off-day, the Rangers sit two games back of the Astros in the division and are tied for the final Wild Card spot with the Orioles and Tigers with 37 games left.

The Rangers are fighting to stay in the postseason picture. That doesn’t hide how tough this past week has been.

“It's obviously a very frustrating and disappointing road trip, and I never want you to think it’s because of the schedule or opponent or anything like that,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “They’re Major League teams that are really good. We just are not playing up to our capabilities and standards. I think that's the biggest thing for us.

“We know we're better than this road trip. We know we're better than what the record says. [Monday was] a much-needed off-day. Come back ready to go against a tough Nationals team that's playing really well this year.”

Here’s an analysis of the final six weeks of the regular season as the Rangers continue their postseason push:

What’s being said?
There’s no getting around it. It was a bad road trip. That was the gist of it.

“It just sucked,” Jake Burger said after the final loss in West Sacramento. “We can't dwell on it, though. Gotta go back home, get an off-day and reset. I think this off-day for us is probably coming at the right time, to kind of just let us slow it down for a sec, and get back on it, get back in front of our own fans back home and make our own destiny.”

What’s next?
“It's about production,” Schumaker said. “You can prepare, which is great. You think about the slumps or the losing streaks or bad road trips or whatever it is. As a coaching staff, you're trying to make sure that we're doing our part to make sure the players are ready to go. We’ve got to keep challenging our staff to get these guys going in the right way. It's up to the staff to try to figure it out. We'll obviously keep having these conversations.

“I've said this. It's not lack of care, not lack of effort. These guys know what's at stake. A lot of those guys in that room have won a lot of games before and been in the playoffs and deep into the playoffs. They know that there's 40 games or so left. So, like I said, they're playing as hard as they can.”

Silver lining?
Nobody is looking for silver linings right now. But it goes without saying that if the Rangers are going to win more than they lose over the final six weeks, they will need Wyatt Langford to produce. Langford is hitting just .174 in his past seven games, but seemed to be hitting his stride once again in the final games in West Sacramento, including a three-hit, two-RBI day in the lone win of the series.

“Wyatt has been fighting,” Schumaker said. “You could see the frustration in the last few games. He’s such a hard worker and you knew he was going to come through eventually. Hard work equals good luck, and I felt like he was deserving of some good luck here soon.”

Rangers remaining schedule:
3 vs. WSH
3 vs LAA
3 @ CWS
3 @ MIL
3 vs ATH
4 vs TB
3 @ SEA
3 @ AZ
3 vs BOS
3 vs TOR
3 vs NYM
3 @ MIN

According to Tankathon, the Rangers have the 13th-toughest strength of schedule through the final stretch of the regular season. The Rangers’ next six games (through Sunday) are against teams with records currently under .500. But that said, the club is 6-7 in its last 13 games, all against opponents with losing records.

“Obviously, it doesn't really matter who we're playing,” Burger said. “It's about ourselves. I think obviously you look at September, and it's like, ‘Oh, they have a harder strength of schedule,’ but that doesn't really matter at the end of the day. It's more about how we handle business ourselves. At the end of the day, it's what it looks like [37] games from now. It's not what it looks like right now. So I think it's really pivotal for the group to kind of stay together. Because yeah, this sucks, but we have to bring the energy again on Tuesday and just kind of lay it out there.”