Texas Rangers news: New horse in the AL West race, Bruce Bochy turns to Max Scherzer to end skid, and more

The Texas Rangers dropped their third game in a row on Saturday afternoon. The good news is that the Houston Astros also lost on Saturday, maintaining the Rangers lead in the AL West at 2.5 games over the defending World Series champs. The bad news is, there is a new team that has thrust themselves into the playoff picture in the AL West.

The Seattle Mariners are 13-4 for the month of August, and within the month have both an eight-game winning streak and are currently on a five-game winning streak. They are in Houston this weekend and have taken the first two games of the series against the Astros and will go for the sweep this afternoon. With their surge up the standings, the Mariners find themselves only four games behind Texas in the AL West and are now 1/2 game up on the Toronto Blue Jays for the last wildcard spot.

Texas obviously needs to take care of their own business and not worry about what is happening behind them, but this AL West race is setting itself up to be a fantastic battle to the end. Seattle ends the regular season with their last 10 games coming against the clubs from the Lone Star State. They travel to Arlington to take on the Rangers for a three-game series, before going home to host the Astros for three-games as well.

They then welcome the Rangers to Seattle, for a huge four-game series. Hopefully Texas will have things in the AL West wrapped up by then, but if not, it is sure to be an exciting long weekend series to finish out the 2023 regular season.

Texas Rangers look to Max Scherzer to get back to winning ways

When Chris Young traded for Max Scherzer, it was for days like today. He is a big game pitcher and today's game is indeed important. It is August 20th, and there are still six weeks left in the regular season, but the Rangers need a win in a bad way. After dropping the last three games, Texas will look to get back in the win column this afternoon with Scherzer on the bump.

Scherzer is 3-0 in his three starts for the Rangers, and will be aiming to make it 4-0 today. This start will be against the best opponent that he has faced, while in a Rangers' uniform, but that won't make him bat his brown or blue eye, much less both.

Offensively, the Rangers will be aiming to score early and often against the Brewers, Adrian Houser. After a nice start to the season, Houser has struggled over the last two months. In his last 10 games that include eight starts, he has a 4.50 ERA, has a .271 batting average allowed, and has given up seven home runs. With the one run that the Rangers pushed across yesterday, Texas has now scored 700 runs on the season. Only the Atlanta Braves, at 712, have scored more to this point.

Sunday Funday, means baby blues

It is Sunday, and the Rangers are at home, so that means the baby blue uniforms will be donned in Arlington. Not only is this uniform an aesthetically pleasing combination, but the Rangers show up and show out when wearing them. Texas is 9-1 this season in home games played on Sunday, in their baby blues. They will shoot for win number 10 in the uniforms this afternoon.

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