A pair of Rangers sluggers' inexcusable performances signal the team is running out of gas

Does anyone actually want to win the AL West? Both the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros have what should be easy games to close out the regular season, but both can't stop dropping these contests as they plunge under .500. Tied at 78-80, one more loss by both clubs will ensure that the division champ will not have a winning record when all is said and done.

For the Rangers, taking care of business and winning the division outright is even more important. Houston holds the tiebreaker, and the final Wild Card spot seems destined to go to the loser of the AL Central battle.

With so much on the line, it's time for stars to be stars and carry the club through. Unfortunately, Texas's biggest names are withering under the bright lights.

Over the last two games, both losses to the last-place New York Mets, the duo of Wyatt Langford and Corey Seager has gone 0-for-14 with 10 strikeouts. Add in the series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays, another 7-2 loss for the Rangers, and the pair is 1-for-24 with 13 punchouts.

Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford have not clicked at the same time all season for the Rangers

For a brief spurt, having just one hitter getting ridiculously hot can carry a team, but beyond a week or two, a ball club is going to need more than just one bat going off. That's been something of a problem for the Rangers this season.

Texas has been waiting for Langford to emerge as a true superstar. The 24-year-old has shown that kind of promise for stretches before, but he's yet to fully put it together. After a frigid start to the season, he then spent 39 games on the IL with a right forearm strain. When he returned on June 5, he started to go off, looking like a potential MVP candidate and hitting .294/.343/.574 with 11 homers through July 31.

Seager also started of with an ice-cold bat, and would go down with an injury that caused him to miss 19 games from mid May until early June, also returning to action on June 5. He hit better once coming back from his first IL stint of the year, slashing .235/.350/.529 from June 5 through July 31, but it still wasn't up to his lofty standard, and he only played in 10 games; a concussion and then a lower back flare-up sent him back to the IL twice more.

Seager returned on July 31 from his third IL stint, and up until these last three games, it appeared that the man the Rangers handed $325 million to was back. From July 31 through September 19, Seager hit .293/.364/.497 with eight dingers. He was back, at least until recently.

Unfortunately, his supposed partner in crime, Langford, disappeared. From July 31 through September 19, the former fourth-overall draft pick hit just .194/.362/.335.

There have been all kinds of excuses and justifications. We'll admit, Langford's been battling nagging injuries, but at a certain point, if you're in the lineup, you need to produce. The cold, hard truth is that if Seager and Langford could've gotten their acts together at the same time this season, Texas would be sitting pretty right about now.

Instead, they're getting the bare minimum, like Langford's sac fly against Sean Manaea Tuesday night, when he came to the plate with the opportunity to actually break the game open for the Rangers.

The Rangers desperately need their stars to step up and impose their will on the proceedings at this point in the year. Instead, they're shrinking in the corner and hoping that no one notices. With only four games left, time is of the essence, and if the Texas runs out of gas, the performance of these two in crunch time will be a major reason why.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow