Rangers unable to defeat the ghost of T-Mobile Park with series loss in Seattle

The Texas Rangers entered their three-game weekend set in Seattle winners of just nine games at T-Mobile Park since the 2020 season.

Getting off to dominate form against Logan Gilbert in Friday's 8-1 win, they were rendered all but useless the next two games to lose the series and cap off a 4-6 road trip spanning three West Coast cities.

T-Mobile Park has been the Rangers' kryptonite this decade

It's been an adventure for the Rangers since the turn of the decade to find any success against their AL West divisional foe Mariners but even more so on the road in Seattle's home ballpark in the Pacific Northwest.

Entering Friday, the Mariners were 38-9 against Texas in their friendly confines. A big part of that has been Seattle's dominant pitching, including the three that took the hill this weekend: Gilbert, George Kirby and Bryan Woo.

They got to Gilbert on Friday, recording seven hits off the right-hander but only scoring two runs. It was the high stress innings Texas put on him that got him out in the sixth inning after 99 pitches. Then it was Kirby, who has apparently been hired as the personal Rangers' killer, escaping jam-after-jam that included two bases loaded innings in the second and fourth innings.

Regardless, the Rangers were unable to conquer the beasts with a 5-2 loss to Woo, who also somehow has found countless ways to keep the Rangers over the last four seasons. The three games raised Texas's overall record this decade in Seattle to 10-40.

Rangers' wins during long, brutal road trip

As the news of yet another failed set of games in Seattle, it would be beneficial to acknoweldge some positives that came out of one of the toughest early season stretches from any of the 30 MLB teams.

Texas holds an 11-11 record, which could be worse, but is still good enough to be tied with the Athletics for first place in the American League West. Taking a dive into deeper stats, the Rangers are performing at a higher clip than the A's, despite the even record which should be cause for hope.

After a 10-game road trip that took them to Los Angeles, Sacramento and Seattle; the Rangers finally have moment to breath in their own beds with the off day Monday before kicking off a well-deserved nine game home stand that stretches to the end of April.

On the trip, a few Rangers' players even decided to take a big leap in level of production that has fans hopeful for the remainder of the year. Perhaps the biggest was the emergence of Josh Jung, who is now batting .290 for the year after a huge last 15 games where he hit .385 with two home runs, eight RBIs, six walks, 20 hits and a .635 slugging percentage.

Joc Pederson also had a terrific road trip, hitting .400 over his last 15 games, with 11 hits, seven scored runs and a .400 on-base percentage. Then of course Jake Burger continued his dominance, driving in nine runs during the Rangers' four game series against the A's as he is tied for the team lead with five long balls and the team's biggest run producer with 17 batted in.

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