Padres series shows Texas Rangers have a long way back to the top

Aren’t you glad the Texas Rangers are in the AL West and not the stacked NL West?

We sure are after watching the boys in powder blue get swept off their home field by the dominant and popular World Series pick San Diego Padres over the weekend to close out a six game slate in Arlington that included a series win over the Blue Jays earlier in the week.

Imagine having to face these Friars 19 times a year. We’re shuttering at that thought.

The Rangers were no-hit by Joe Musgrove on Friday night, as the Padres secured their first ever no-hitter. Texas failed to do enough to win Saturday and Sunday, despite getting a stellar start out of Mike Foltynewicz in the latter contest (seven innings of one-run ball).

San Diego must be feeling sad to leave, as they’ve absolutely dominated the Rangers the last two seasons and have an eight game winning streak against them that dates back to 2018.

The weekend Padres series showed us that the Texas Rangers are nowhere near ready to contend.

We didn’t learn anything new about the home team this weekend. In fact, the same narrative that has surrounded this team was only emphasized by a Padres sweep: there’s a lot of work to be done in this rebuild before the Texas Rangers can consider themselves part of the upper echelon of baseball teams once again.

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The Padres came into this series without their superstar shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and were still able to bully the Rangers around with ease.

First, it was the aforementioned Joe Musgrove on Friday with a no-hitter. On Saturday, the Rangers were able to get to Chris Paddack, but couldn’t hold onto a lead deep into the game. And on Sunday, the Rangers fell asleep at the wheel, unable to get Folty any run support (but Joey Gallo did steal a base!).

San Diego boasts an elite collection of roster talent that is matched by few teams in this league. The Texas Rangers are essentially on the opposite end of the spectrum, with a lot of promise in the minors, but not much to offer at the big league level right now.

This disparity was quite evident throughout the series.

The Rangers will look to put the sour end to their first homestand of 2021 in the rear-view mirror as they prepare to take on the defending AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa for a quick four game roadtrip before returning to Globe Life Field next weekend to take on the Baltimore Orioles.