Rangers upcoming 10-game road trip is make or break for rest of the season

It seems the Rangers have experienced a handful of make or break moments throughout the first 87 games of the 2025 season but what they are about to experience over the next week and a half truly will seal their fate.

After a 3-3 homestand that ended with two dominate wins over the Orioles, the Rangers will embark on 10-game road trip in San Diego on Friday. A true make-or-break moment as they take on teams either sitting at the .500 mark or well above it.

They've had tough stretches this season. Sometimes playing 19 games in 20 days from late April into early May or other 10 game road trips against tough opponents but thanks to the opposition and the timing, this one takes the cake.

Overview of the Rangers upcoming 10 games on the road

As mentioned, they will start the trip on Friday for a weekend series against the Padres at Petco Park. Currently, the Padres are 46-40, sitting in second place in the NL West but hold the NL's final Wild Card spot.

With a 5-5 record over their last 10 games, San Diego will take Randy Vasquez, Stephen Kolek and a starter TBD to the mound this weekend. Texas will counter with the resurgent Vandy Boys in Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, finishing the series with lefty Patrick Corbin.

Over the last six games against the Padres, dating back to 2023, Texas is 1-5 against them. That includes a three-game sweep at the hands of San Diego at Petco Park from July 28-30, 2023, right before the Trade Deadline.

Texas then stays in California just an hour and half drive north to Angel Stadium to take on division rival Angels. The Rangers are 3-0 against LA this year but currently sit dead even with the Angels in both the AL West and AL Wild Card standings.

While the Angels currently have one of the best home run hitting teams in Major League Baseball, they sit neck-and-neck with Texas at the bottom of the league in average have the second-most strikeouts in the league at 830, trailing only the Rockies.

Then the roadtrip turns into an in-state rivalrly weekend against the Astros, who like always, lead the AL West by 9.5 games. Houston is entering this weekend with the fifth-best batting average across MLB and a pitching staff with the third-best ERA and most amount of strikeouts.

Rangers' performance will determine team's fate for rest of 2025

All that being said, it's no shock that this 10-game stretch will make or break the rest of the year for the Rangers. If they fail to win, which is possible given their 17-25 record away from Globe Life Field, they will be all but forced to trade at the deadline.

However, if they are able to walk away from this long trip as winners of six or seven games, with multiple of them being in-division wins, it could convince Chris Young to go out into the open market and do what he can to make the team better.

The Rangers have the pitching for it. They have the best ERA in MLB at 3.23 and while they don't strike out a lot of hitters, they have limited them to a .226 average against. With Jacob deGrom on a historic stretch and Nathan Eovaldi finally back from IL and regaining confidence with each start, this team could be dangerous as long as the offense produces.