ARLINGTON -- Will home cooking be enough to get the Rangers to the postseason?
Texas is playing 15 of its 24 regular-season games in September at Globe Life Field, tied with Kansas City in the American League for the most home-friendly schedule in MLB to conclude the year. For the Rangers, that could mean all the difference between postseason baseball and being at home in October.
Since the start of 2023, the Rangers’ 180-130 mark (.581) at home is third in the American League, behind only the Mariners (.585) and Rays (.583).
Texas improved to 38-29 (.567) at Globe Life Field with Tuesday’s 8-5 win over the A’s, its third straight victory. The club owns the third-best home record in the AL and seventh-best in MLB.
“It's a real thing,” first baseman Jake Burger said of home-field advantage. “We feel comfortable in this park. I think it's something that we can keep building on to help us. … We have a lot more home games than we do road games to finish the season. I think having that advantage for those 15 games can definitely help us continue the momentum.”
Tuesday’s win was an illustration of the things the Rangers have done well at home. MacKenzie Gore tossed a solid 5 1/3 innings, while the offense racked up eight runs on 12 hits.
Brandon Nimmo led the way, going 4-for-5 with a season-high five RBIs. He drove in runs in each of his first four plate appearances and became the eighth player (10th instance) in franchise history (since 1961) to record four hits and five RBIs through the first six innings of a game.
“Nimmo, he’s providing such big offense at the time that we needed the most,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “We've had some really good production from the guys of late, and we're going to need it. The next 20-plus games, we're going to need all of them to give us their best. And they have throughout the year. That effort has never been in question, and it's just nice to see some production giving our pitchers some breathing room.”
Texas is 21-12 in its last 33 games in Arlington dating back to June 19, going 9-2-0 in series play during the span, including six consecutive home set victories since July 24. Six consecutive home series victories is the club’s longest streak since April 14-June 20, 2016 (11 consecutive home set victories). Their last home series loss came from July 20-22 against the White Sox.
Comparatively, the Rangers have not won a series on the road since winning back-to-back sets in Toronto and Cleveland from June 25-July 1.
“I wish I could tell you the reason why we've been bad on the road,” said Schumaker. “I wish I could tell you, because that's what keeps you up at night in my position. … We're significantly better here. Having said that, we have a chance to play some really good baseball in a stadium where we've played good baseball for the majority of the year. I hope that continues to happen.
“I don't have a reason, and I wish I could give you some made-up one, but it won’t be true. We've been trying to figure out exactly what it is. But [15] games here is a big deal for us, and hopefully we can make a push and make the most out of it.”
As for the specifics, the Rangers have a team ERA of 3.60 at home this year, tied for fourth in the American League. They have a 4.93 road ERA, 13th in the AL.
Going into Tuesday, they had a 104 wRC+ at home (10th in the AL) and 102 on the road (4th in the AL). It's not a major difference, and not close to the biggest discrepancy for an AL squad. But it’s still worth noting for a team that could use every win it can get.
“We've had success here,” said ace Jacob deGrom, who has a 2.42 ERA at home and 5.86 ERA on the road. “We need it. We still have some games on the road that we gotta go win, so we can't just think of it like that. We just gotta go out and try to win every game. But playing here at home for the majority of the games left is definitely a huge plus.”
At the conclusion of Tuesday night’s slate, the Rangers sit one game back of the Astros in the AL West and 1.5 back of the Guardians for the third and final AL Wild Card spot.
No matter the record, everything is right in front of them for the taking.
“It's just a take it one day at a time kind of thing,” Nimmo said. “We’re playing good baseball right now. Let's just take that one day at a time. Let's try and take care of the fundamentals each day. It's a lot of the same of what we've been doing. Just keep trying to find a way to win each day, and then the standings will take care of themselves.
"We're in a position right now that the postseason is a very realistic thing for us. We just need to play like that and play like we belong. We're probably not going to win the rest of the games in September, but you prepare in a way that we're trying to win today and right now.”