Rangers still a have chance to win the tight 3-horse AL West race

The Texas Rangers secured perhaps their biggest series win of the season this weekend, taking two of three from in-state and division rival Houston Astros and cutting into the division lead.

Entering another crucial series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday, the Rangers sit four games back of the AL West, trailing behind the Seattle Mariners and the Astros. At 74-70, Texas is winners of seven of their last 10 games and playing the best baseball among the three teams.

With 18 games left, the Rangers are hoping to keep that positive momentum going and secure a playoff spot. Maybe even that postseason spot includes a division title as well.

Why shouldn't the Rangers just aim for an AL Wild Cars spot?

The Rangers are indeed in better position to secure an American League Wild Card spot, only trailing Seattle for the final spot by 1.5 games and Seattle playing below .500 baseball in the second-half.

The issue with solely chasing a wild card spot is the unfortunate tie-breaker situations. Texas has already lost the season series to Seattle and the team slightly behind Texas in the Kansas City Royals, any inch of an even record at the end of Game 162 leaves Texas as the odd man out.

With no games left this season against either of those, all the Rangers can do is keep playing well and continuing to get wins but even that might not be enough if multiple teams remain tied record-wise.

Rangers winning AL West secures any doubt but there are other options

It's been eight years since a team not named the Houston Astros has won the AL West division, if you don't count the shortened 2020 title by the Athletics.

The Rangers are still in prime position to do so but are faced with challenges. Thanks to a series win this weekend against Houston and three more games against them this season, they could win the season series, as well as any potential tiebreaker.

Texas is still third in the division behind Seattle as well and that only gives the Rangers a 2.8% chance to win their division, according to FanGraphs.

While Texas could continue to win and hope the trend of poor play from Seattle and Houston helps them rise up the ranks, they can also lean on Seattle hitting a hot streak, taking Houston out of first and then Texas snatching a wild card spot out of the Astros' hands.