Texas Rangers and their record in one-run games a microcosm of 2022 season

At this point, it is nearly comical. Texas Rangers fans should probably laugh and cry about the anomaly of the team’s one-run record in 2022. The Rangers dropped yet another one-run game Friday night but put one in the win column Saturday evening while playing the Minnesota Twins. The split brings the teams record in one-run contests to 8-25 (.242 W-L%) on the season.

This subject has been talked about extensively, and will quite frankly, be talked about for years to come. Baseball is a game that loves the pursuit of numbers, both good and bad. As fans of the game, we are intrigued by the rare oddity of extreme streaks, slumps, recorder breaking performances, and dubious distinction.

Despite going 2-1 in one-run games this week, the Texas Rangers have struggled in close ballgames in 2022

Interim manager Tony Beasley got into the one-run game action Monday night in his first game at the helm. That game was actually a one-run victory over the Oakland A’s, by the score of 2-1.

What has been the cause for the unusually bad record in 1-run games? Everything, that is all. All it takes to come out on the short end of things in a close ballgame, is a small amount of bad pitching, poor defense, lack of offense, baserunning mistakes, or poor managerial decisions. The Rangers have had plenty of all the issues listed above.

The month of August has actually been good and what you would hope for in one-run games, as the team has now recorded a 3-2 record. But while going 1-10 in such games in July, the already bad record, turned disastrous.

Most of the time in baseball, numbers and records will correct themselves, and regress back to the mean. This year, it is looking like that will not be the case over the 2022 season for the Texas Rangers in one-run games. Perhaps, the regression back to the mean is happening, but from the year 2016. That season (the Rangers last winning season) the team went 36-11 (.766 W-L%) in one-run games, on their way to the best record in the American League.

This season and 2016 do have one thing in common, though: the Rangers will end up with the exact same number of postseason wins in both years. In 2016, the team was swept by the Toronto Blue Jays in 3-games in the ALDS. Ironically, that last game in Toronto was an extra inning affair, that was decided by you guessed it, one run.

Much like a train wreck that you can’t look away from, the Texas Rangers one-run games this season are, if nothing else, captivating. As we scratch our heads and ponder why things are happening this way, maybe we can all hope that this crazy one-run record will be the beginning of winning seasons and deep playoff runs, much like the 2016 season marked the end of an era of winning baseball in Arlington.