Shameful Rangers streak must come to an end before playoff hopes go up in smoke

Skip Schumaker has expressed that he and his team are approaching each game as a playoff game, as the Texas Rangers' playoff hopes are teetering on the precipice of a cliff. Their inability to be a consistent ball club away from Globe Life Field means either the team doesn't have the juice to turn it up a notch away from Globe Life Field or they simply aren't playing as desperately as they need to be.

Since the first series after the All-Star break on July 17, the team has lost six consecutive series away from Arlington after dropping 2-of-3 to the Chicago White Sox on the South Side of the Windy City. Now, they head to Milwaukee to take on the team with the best record in the league, the Brewers, and have already dropped the first game of the series.

The Rangers have typically played to the level of their competition this year, and it has resulted in treading water around the .500 mark. They'd better be ready to play some of their best baseball of the season if they want to reverse this nasty streak over the weekend.

The Rangers have to end their road woes and win the series against the Brewers, and the opposing rotation is favorable for them yet again

The Rangers have had golden opportunities to change the narrative surrounding their road woes, but have failed to capitalize. In late July, they went to Houston to face an Astros team scrambling to put together a starting rotation and got swept. Later, from August 10 through August 17, they went out to California to play the two worst teams in the league and lost two series to the Angels and Athletics. On the current road trip, they started well, winning the first game against the White Sox, but were not competitive in the final two.

Now, they head to Milwaukee, and, yet again, they will dodge a team's best pitcher as they will miss likely NL Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski, who is dominating the NL at 14-5, with a 1.73 ERA and 0.75 WHIP while racking up 222 Ks in 151 innings pitched. That is step one in winning the series, and it has been gifted to you.

Step two is getting better pitching from both the starting staff and the bullpen. The Rangers will be going with Cody Bradford, Cal Quantrill, and Kumar Rocker in the series. All three need to have quality starts against a team that is 46-24 at American Family Field. It will be a tall order, to be sure, but all three Rangers' starters have shown good form recently. The question is: Can they do it in a hostile environment with 40,00 screaming cheeseheads who are jacked up about their first-place team that is looking to go deep into the postseason?

Of course, the Rangers need to be more consistent at the plate. They hit fairly well in Chicago, but outside of the 11-2 win on Monday, most of their production came in garbage time. If the mentality of the 2023 Champs were ever going to imbue this team with how they handled the road games in the playoffs, the time for that would be right now,

Including this weekend, the Rangers have four road series remaining this season. They will have to be laser-focused to end their road series losing streak against the Brew Crew, but after that, they have winnable sets against the Mariners, Diamondbacks, and Twins. If there are going to be any playoff games in Arlington in 2026, they will have to be better against these teams in their ballparks - starting now.

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