The Texas Rangers have a problem ending losing streaks

What is going to be the consequence of this consistent poor play?

I think we all know the answer to that question and it is missing the playoffs. Texas time and again down the stretch has had opportunities to win games, but has either seen the offense fall flat or the bullpen blow it late. Monday night was an example of both as the offense scored two runs against the Boston Red Sox.

Texas had a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning and brought Will Smith in as the setup man to give the ball to Aroldis Chapman to close it out. He walked the lead off batter, gave up a double to the next hitter. He rebounded with a strikeout and then an intentional walk to Rafael Devers to load the bases. That brought Rob Refsnyder to the plate to face Will Smith. Instead of removing Smith at this point Bochy left him in. Refsnyder has a .310 batting average against lefties and proceeded to line a single to center that scored two runs and gave the Red Sox the lead. Boston would add another run on a sacrifice fly later in the inning. Texas had two opportunities to come back but failed both times and lost their fourth game in a row.

The high of the sweep in Toronto has now completely faded. The ground that was made up and the lead that was established with that sweep is now gone. Toronto is now one game ahead of Texas who is tied with Seattle for the last playoff spot. It is all because Texas has failed to respond to the loss on Friday night. A loss that by the way was completely excusable. The loss removed any momentum that Texas possessed and sent them on this tailspin that they have not recovered.

Texas's best hope is that they can win one of these last two games against Boston and carry that momentum into the series against Seattle. Texas has shown that once they win one game they can normally string four or five wins in a row. If they can put together a winning streak that will go a long way toward securing their playoff chances. They have to first win one game and hopefully that starts on Tuesday night.

Tuesday night's Pitching Matchup

Game two between Boston and Texas will see Tanner Houck of the Red Sox facing off against Nathan Eovaldi. Game time will be at 7:05pm and will be broadcast locally by Bally Sports Southwest.

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