Rangers heartbreaking loss feels like the end as Mariners, Astros battle for AL West

The Texas Rangers reached a point that felt like a dagger in a long, hopefully easily forgettable season after a heartbreaking series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks to end a long nine-game home stand.

To make matters worse, the Mariners and Astros are in a tight battle for an AL West division title that the Rangers were favorites to win at the start of the year.

Is the Rangers crushing series loss a dagger into their playoff hopes?

Following their series sweep at the hands of the Phillies this past weekend, the Rangers were still a few games over .500 and holding on to a roughly 22% chance of making the postseason. In came Arizona and Texas had an opportunity to get back on the right side of winning.

However, despite the 7-6 comeback win in game one of the series, two crushing losses in the final innings pushed the Rangers back to the .500 mark at 61-61 and one of their lowest playoff odds of the year at just 16.6%.

If the Phillies sweep seemed to be a crater in the Rangers' playoff hopes, what does 5 losses in their last six games in mid-August mean?

After the Rangers 3-2 loss to the Diamondbacks on Tuesday, manager Bruce Bochy called it the worst game they've ever played and directly took time to call out the offense has a whole.

He's not wrong either. The offense is one of the worst teams in the league despite being 10x better since June 1. While no player has spoken too in-depth outside of Bochy's comments on Tuesday, just by watching the games and looking at the player's faces shows just how upsetting this is to them.

Fans are fed up with the Rangers' inconsistencies

Whether it's jokingly (maybe?) posting "elimination" graphics on social media, calling for the release of a player or demanding Bochy be fired for "incompetence", the fandom has reached quitting time.

It shows in the fans attendance over the last home stand. When the 9-games at home began on August 4 against the Yankees there were 32,000 fans and it ended with a little over 26,000 fans at Wednesday's series finale against Arizona. The low point even reached 18,200 on Tuesday.

As the Rangers have an off day Thursday, they travel to Toronto to start up a weekend series with the AL East-leading Blue Jays, then four games against Kansas City and three against the Guardians. All of which will be tough and crucial series as the calendar inches closer to September.