Texas Rangers: 4 Matchups that will determine who will win the wild card round

#2 The Lowe Brothers matchup

This has been a story everytime that Texas and Tampa have squared off is the matchup of siblings Nathaniel and Josh Lowe. This comes a year after Aaron and Austin Nola matched up in the 2022 National League Championship Series. This will the third series between the Lowe brothers this season.

Josh Lowe had a good season for Tampa Bay. He had a .292 batting average with 20 home runs and 82 RBIs for Tampa Bay. This was his first full season playing for the Rays. If he has a good series Tampa will have a decent shot to win.

This section is going to mostly be about Nathaniel Lowe. Texas desperately needs Lowe to play well in this series. He is one of the Rangers' best overall hitters. He can hit with power, hit from foul line to foul line, and is a good run producer. That is when he is playing well. There is likely no player happier that September has come to an end than Lowe. He had a .160 batting average in September and one game of October. He had two home runs and 12 RBIs. He also struck out 34 times and grounded into eight double-plays.

Lowe was not good and he lost his job as the number three hitter by the end of the season. He was moved down to seven against left-handed pitchers and five against right-handed pitchers. That will likely not change against the Rays. Lowe does have a chance to redeem himself this postseason. The numbers all reset and it is a new season starting on Tuesday. Lowe has shown in the past that when he gets hot that he can carry an offense. If he can do that starting in this series, he could carry Texas deep into the playoffs. The talent is still certainly there, but the results have not been.

If Nathaniel's brother Josh outshines him in these games then Texas will struggle for runs much like they did against the Mariners this past weekend. It could be a short two and out for these Texas Rangers. If Nathaniel is playing well and gets multiple hits and is driving in runs, Texas will win this series.

Next: Can the best player in this series carry his team to a series win?