USA TODAY US Edition

RANGERS HIT ANOTHER TWIST

In season full of ups, downs, team’s thoughts with Houston, where Texas is scheduled to play next

- Jorge L. Ortiz @jorgelorti­z USA TODAY Sports

For the first 13 minutes of his pregame gathering with news reporters Sunday, Texas Rangers manager Jeff Banister was not asked a question about baseball.

As clips of the devastatio­n left behind by Hurricane Harvey played on the TV set in his office, Banister mulled the current and upcoming hardships people in the Houston area were facing, including some of his relatives.

The surreal scenes that kept flashing on the screen made baseball a secondary concern, although for the Rangers there were practical considerat­ions as well. They’re scheduled to begin a three-game series Tuesday at Minute Maid Park, home of the American League West-leading Houston Astros, and are awaiting word on alternate plans.

Already, the Rangers had scratched their Sunday night flight to Houston and were to head to Dallas-Fort Worth, where they will spend their day off Monday. The Astros, who were playing the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, were to be rerouted to Dallas as well, instead of returning home.

“When you look at video like this, you don’t really think about going out to play baseball in Houston right now,” said Banister, whose parents and in-laws live in the area. “I get it. Our game’s been played through a number of different adverse situations. But I also think about, if we fly in there, we’re staying in a neighborho­od that they’ve shown on TV just south of the hotel where people are walking out in waist-deep water.”

With the clubs scheduled to meet again for three games in late September at the Rangers’ Globe Life Park, it’s possible the series locales will be flip-flopped, though a decision by Major League Baseball is not expected until Monday.

Proper perspectiv­e firmly in place, Banister said his team would adjust to any changes. They figure to present less of a challenge than what the Rangers have encountere­d in a season full of fits and starts.

Coming off back-to-back division crowns, the club figured to stage a Texas showdown with the Astros for AL West supremacy all season behind a power-packed lineup and a rotation headed by Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish.

Instead, Houston went 16-9 in April to grab hold of a division lead it has not relinquish­ed, building the margin to double figures and rendering the Rangers as yet another aspirant to a wild-card spot in a crowded field. At 64-66, Texas is three games back of the second wild card, one of eight teams in contention for the final two spots.

While the offense has delivered, ranking second in the majors in home runs and fifth in runs going into Sunday, the pitching has lagged with a collective 4.44 ERA and the fielding has been below par. The bullpen is on its third closer, with Alex Claudio getting most of the save chances after Sam Dyson and Matt Bush faltered.

Yet the fourth-place Rangers find themselves in contention largely because of an unexpected August surge and the abundant mediocrity in the AL beyond the division leaders.

“We’ve been playing well in the last month and have won most of the series,” center fielder Carlos Gomez said. “We played impeccably in winning the series against (the Angels last week). Let’s see what happens in these last 30somethin­g games.”

All but six of the Rangers’ final

32 games will have them play against division opponents, including 13 against fellow wild-card hopefuls such as the Angels and Seattle Mariners.

For a while it didn’t look like those contests would hold much meaning as Texas, enduring a 2-6 stretch that dropped its record to

50-56, traded Darvish and catcher Jonathan Lucroy shortly before the July 31 deadline.

The message from the team’s brass seemed clear, but the players failed to heed it. Texas won 14 of its first 22 games in August to climb over .500 for the first time in two months before stumbling this weekend against the Oakland Athletics, who swept the threegame series.

“We’re workers, and we don’t control that,” Gomez said of the trades. “The organizati­on thought that was the right thing to do at the time, and it’s up to those of us who are still here to carry on and win the games we have left.”

Their chances most likely hinge on how the pitchers perform.

After spending nearly two months on the disabled list with an oblique strain, Hamels won seven of eight decisions until getting shelled by the A’s on Saturday. Martin Perez, who saw his season ERA soar to 5.46 early in August, has gone 4-0 with a 3.00 ERA in his last four starts. The bullpen hasn’t blown a save since July 2. On top of that, team home run leader Joey Gallo is expected back from the DL on Tuesday.

Is that enough to fuel a final push? Banister believes so, based more on his players’ track record than on any premonitio­n he might have.

“Are we poised to win baseball games? I think so,” Banister said. “We’ve been winning baseball games. We’ve lost (three) in a row here in Oakland. … I believe this team is going to put a run together, they’re going to put us where we need to go. There’s no doubt in my mind. That’s in their DNA. That’s who they are.”

 ?? PATRICK MCDERMOTT, USA TODAY SPORTS ?? Since returning from an injury in late June, pitcher Cole Hamels has been mostly brilliant for the Rangers, who are surging in hopes of a wild-card playoff berth.
PATRICK MCDERMOTT, USA TODAY SPORTS Since returning from an injury in late June, pitcher Cole Hamels has been mostly brilliant for the Rangers, who are surging in hopes of a wild-card playoff berth.

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