Rangers sloppy play in Mets opener could foreshadow playoff fate

The Texas Rangers had a golden opportunity in the series opener against the New York Mets. Struggling lefty Sean Manaea was taking the mound, and the club needed to take advantage of that fact to get off on the right foot with New York's rookie ace Nolan McLean lurking in Game 2.

Entering the matchup with a slim one-game lead over the Houston Astros for the division lead, and with the Astros owning the tiebreaker, it's imperative that the Rangers win the AL West outright. The Wild Card is out of the picture for all intents and purposes, as the surging Chicago White Sox are close to wrapping things up.

Unfortunately, Texas was unable to take advantage of Manaea on the mound and has now fallen into a tie with Houston, which, if the season ended today, would mean the team would be staying home in Arlington this October.

A bunch of season-long bugaboos downed the Rangers and made their playoff status questionable

Manaea wasn't perfect against the Rangers, but he didn't have to be. While Texas threatened a few times, it could never get the big hit to break the game open. The Rangers had a prime opportunity in the bottom of the second as a Francisco Lindor error allowed Jake Burger to reach, and Brandon Nimmo followed up with a single gave them a first-and-second situation with no outs. Manaea ended up retiring the next three batters to maintain the scoreless tie.

Then, in the bottom of the fourth, Texas seemed to be on the verge of breaking the game open. Nimmo singled, Ezequiel Duran walked, and Justin Foscue was hit by a pitch to give the Rangers the bases loaded with no outs, trailing by a score of 2-1.

In this case, Elias Diaz hit a sac fly to score a run, and then Danny Jansen was hit by a pitch to reload the bases. Wyatt Langford followed up with another sac fly to give Texas a 3-2 lead, but Corey Seager would strike out to end the threat. The situational hitting with the sac flies was nice, but what the Rangers really needed was a big hit or two to open the flood gates. This would end up being the last run they scored.

Now, on the pitching side of things, MacKenzie Gore wasn't terrible, but he wasn't great either. The once-prized left-hander has been very streaky all season, with more good than bad at this point. This time around, his defense didn't help him out much, but he avoided the big meltdown. Unfortunately, he's been dealing with nagging injuries and was pulled after just five innings and 77 pitches.

That left the middle relief corps, long the soft underbelly of the pitching staff exposed, and this time around, Nathan Eovaldi couldn't recapture his magic from his previous outing and gave up three runs in the sixth.

It wasn't all Eovaldi's fault. While it goes down as a sac fly and not an error, Jake Burger's double clutch on a foul pop-up allowed Francisco Alvarez to score the Mets' fifth run of the game. There were other questionable plays throughout, but perhaps none bigger than Brandon Nimmo's fourth inning error that led a run to score and led to a near-collision with Ezequiel Duran.

At the end of the day, the Rangers needed this game and didn't play like their playoff lives depended on it. The starting rotation is full of question marks, as deGrom is dealing with injuries, just like Gore, Kumar Rocker, and Cody Bradford have taken the team on rollercoaster rides during their starts.

At the same time, the offense runs hot and cold, middle relief has been an issue, and depending on the postiion, defense can be shaky. Most of all, it's still unclear whether or not Texas has the killer instinct to both make the playoffs and do damage should it get there.

We don't want to overreact to one game, and there have been plenty of times throughout the season when we've been ready to throw dirt on the Rangers only to see them rebound. However, time is of the essence. There might not be another chance to rebound, and if they miss out on the postseason, this game will be emblematic of the issues that held them back.

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