Sunday hops, 9-22-24.
A weekly compendium emptying the bench, with Rangers developments, rumors, and takes — and yes, a little TROT COFFEY.
A month ago, Texas had just finished winning two of three over the Pirates, punctuated by a walkoff win sealed on a Wyatt Langford single in the ninth that produced the game’s only run. It was the Rangers’ first series win in four weeks — and it kicked off a run of five series victories out of six. The win loss record was 70-74; going a manageable 11-7 the rest of the way, after having gone 13-6 in those previous six series, would mean a .500 record for the season after all that had gone wrong.
Instead, Texas has lost eight of 11 since, including five straight to the Mariners heading into today’s final date at home. Last night’s 8-4 loss — which featured Max Scherzer getting scratched and IL’d, perhaps for the last time as a Ranger — guaranteed a losing record in 2024.
I’m looking forward to this offseason — not in a Derek Bender way, but to fully shift focus to the matter of retooling this group to make another run in 2025.
But first, there are seven more baseball games. On to the penultimate in-season Hops — though we’ll keep this feature going all offseason, with a weekly entry every Sunday just as we’ve done all year.