Rangers Beat Mets in Home Finale, Head to Final Weekend Tied for AL West Lead
The short version
- Rangers beat the Mets 3-1 in their home finale to stay tied with Houston atop the AL West at 79-80.
- Houston holds the tiebreaker, so Texas must finish with a better record to win the division.
- Josh Jung hit a two-run first-inning homer; Corey Seager added his 19th home run.
- A late Mariners comeback over the Astros in 10 innings the previous night kept the Rangers' hopes alive.
- Jacob deGrom (11-10) is scheduled to start the series opener in Minnesota.
Texas stayed even with Houston atop the AL West with a 3-1 win over New York and now closes the regular season with three games in Minnesota.
The Texas Rangers won their home finale 3-1 over the New York Mets on Thursday, keeping pace in a crowded AL West race heading into the final weekend of the regular season. Texas is 79-80 and even with the Houston Astros in the division standings, though Houston holds the head-to-head tiebreaker for the American League's last remaining playoff berth.
Because of that tiebreaker, the Rangers must finish the season with a better record than Houston to claim the division. Manager Skip Schumaker said the team approached the day with belief that its season was still alive and played with confidence as a result.
Houston kept the pressure on by opening a four-game series against the Athletics with a 7-5 victory. That left both clubs level going into the closing days.
Texas nearly faced a far worse situation the night before. As Rangers players left the clubhouse following a 7-2 loss to the Mets — their third straight defeat — the Astros already led 4-0 in the third inning in Seattle. But the Mariners came back to win in 10 innings, a result Rangers players tracked closely and discussed in their group chat, according to third baseman Josh Jung.
Shortstop Corey Seager said the Mariners' comeback kept Texas in the race and that the Rangers took advantage of the opening. Jung, playing in just his 11th game since missing nearly two months with a left calf strain, hit a two-run home run in the first inning that gave Texas a lead it never relinquished. Seager broke an 0-for-15 skid with his 19th homer, leading off the sixth inning.
The stakes are different from 2023, when the Rangers won their only World Series title after Houston matched them at 90-72 on the final day and Texas entered the playoffs as the second wild card. This season, no second postseason spot is available for an AL West team, so the division race is winner-take-all between the Rangers and Astros.
Schumaker, in his first year as Rangers manager after taking Miami to the NL playoffs as a wild card in 2023, said his focus is only on the next game. He noted that Jacob deGrom, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who is 11-10 this season, is lined up to start the series opener in Minnesota, with Seager at shortstop and Jung at third base.
The Rangers play three games at the Twins to close the season. Friday's opener at Target Field is set for 8:10 PM EDT, with coverage on MLB.TV, Twins.TV, Rangers Sports Network and CW33.
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