Rangers playoff chances still exist despite series loss to Astros

The Texas Rangers almost pulled off a huge comeback on Tuesday, but dropped another game to the Houston Astros 6-5 and have lost three in a row at the worst possible time.

With Merril Kelly's terrible outing, Texas is now 4.5 games behind their Silver Boot rivals, and the road to the playoffs no longer goes through Houston, Seattle, or the AL West.

But there is still a decent chance that they could sneak into the final wild-card slot if they get back to their winning ways.

The Rangers' best bet to make the playoffs is by overtaking Cleveland and Boston

With just 10 games left on the schedule, the Rangers are now closest to the surging Cleveland Guardians and struggling Boston Red Sox. Cleveland has won 10 of 11, while Boston has lost four of their last five and has a much more difficult slate of games to close out the season.

The Rangers have a very favorable schedule left with series against the Marlins and Twins at Globe Life Field before they head to Cleveland for the final three games of the regular season. Ideally, they would be in a position to control their own destiny in that three-game set versus the Guardians.

The Rangers need to turn things around immediately, but also need the Guardians to cool off and the Red Sox to continue to lose.

Cleveland and Boston have a much tougher schedule to end the season

Of their final 10 games, the Guardians have 5 games left with the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers. Likely back-to-back Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal will start two of those games. They do get a four-game set with the struggling Twins, but then they have the Rangers in what could be a three-game series to secure a playoff spot.

All of that would be moot, however, if the Red Sox don't come back to them by continuing to lose. Their schedule is easily the toughest of the three remaining teams in the hunt.

Boston plays three games against the Tigers and three against the NL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays.

All of this is also dependent on the Rangers returning to their late-season form and applying pressure on both the Guardians and Red Sox.

Jacob deGrom will take the mound on Wednesday to try to right the ship for Texas before it's too late in 2025.