Rangers road trip thoughts: Texas 7-3 during three-city journey, pull off six-game win streak

Miami, Toronto, Cleveland. A lot of travel there for a team that has played plenty of games on the road already. Not exactly the easiest opponents either. The Marlins just wrapped up June as the best team in baseball, and the Guardians are fighting for first place in the AL Central. Yes, the Blue Jays have been struggling.

The Rangers travel home with their heads quite high, though. Seven wins in 10 games, also pulling off a six-game win streak. You could not have asked for a better stretch in the middle of the season.

Let's dive into thoughts from the trip.

Thought 1 - Best win streak in nearly a decade

Six straight wins for the Rangers on the road trip. Who saw this coming? Put your hand down, you're lying. Especially after how the Marlins series went, not even the most delusional fan would suggest taking four straight from Toronto and then taking a series vs. Cleveland.

Being the best winning streak since 2017 did surprise me. Bad teams, which the Rangers mostly have been since 2017, even stumble into six-game winning streaks. Not even the 2023 squad pulled off the feat. So, quite an accomplishment.

To pull this off, almost everything needs to go well. The bats produced fast starts in Toronto, while the starting pitching held up, plus some. However high you think of the bullpen, double it. Despite being nearly nameless across the national landscape, this has been a huge feather in Chris Young's cap. They might deserve the most credit for the streak.

At least offensively, the opposite was true in Cleveland. Late-inning magic got the job done.

The Guardians ended things on Wednesday afternoon. But no complaints. Hopefully a season-defining road trip for the Rangers, and one we look back on in late September as a big reason why the team made the playoffs.

Thought 2 - But not without a little bit of luck

Have you ever seen a baseball team win the ways the Rangers did on Sunday and Tuesday? Don't know if we will ever see anything like that again.

First up, credit to Jared Kelenic for his base running. A wild pitch turned into two bases and the eventual game-winning run in the finale vs. Toronto. Tough for Kelenic, who was not wearing a Rangers uniform the next day. But his contribution on Sunday will not be forgotten after a whacky play from the Blue Jays.

And then the wildest of them all – Cooper Ingle. To an extent, you feel for the rookie. Knowing how many outs are in a baseball game is about Day 1 as this stuff gets, though. Credit to him for answering questions and facing the music postgame. Still cannot happen and a tough pill to swallow if you are a Guardians fan. Luckily, nobody here is.

Hopefully, Ingle feels a little better since Josh Jung hit a solo home run the following inning. Cleveland's offense did not produce anything after, meaning his mistake did not directly turn into the difference.

Never apologize for winning. Especially when those games get you over .500 and into first place. Streaks are always going to come with a little bit of luck. Keep it coming.

Thought 3 - Jacob Latz is a complete and utter (All-)Star

The Jacob Latz late-inning counter was fun in the opening portions of the season. Out of nowhere, the Rangers threw him in the bullpen. And then they threw him into high-leverage situations. And then they started to let him close games. Almost everything has gone well.

Latz exits the road trip with five saves in 10 games. The Blue Jays did tag him for two runs in Thursday night's game. His other 5.1 innings were nearly perfect. Only one hit allowed in them, shutting down teams at the end of games.

I don't think even Latz would have believed this was possible. He undoubtedly should be heading to Philadelphia in a couple of weeks to represent the Rangers at the MLB All-Star Game. Without him, the record is a whole lot worse than what it reads right now. His late-game ability, even when asked to pitch multiple innings, is a season (franchise?)-changing development.

Closer has been a major question for Texas over the past two years. Well, the Rangers have found their guy.

Thought 3 - Injury problems to star players

Frustration. No other word you can use to describe these Rangers' injuries.

Wyatt Langford has already been confirmed shut down through the All-Star Break. A hamstring problem is not something to mess around with, especially for a guy expected to play centerfield. This comes right after the forearm injury. And Langford was getting hot off the IL, turning into the player everyone expected him to be.

In the month of June, Langford had an OPS over 1.000. Seven home runs saw the resurgence of his power, while adding five doubles. Exactly the type of production the Rangers need at the top of the lineup. Now, gone for another few weeks.

Seager is in the same boat, just without the same type of production. You can tell the star shortstop is frustrated. It's a back bothering him this go-round. He seemingly cannot catch a break. Wednesday brought another IL stint for Seager.

Everyone is waiting for Seager to get back to his 2023 form and be the guy Texas is paying $32.5 million a year. He needs consistency in the lineup to get back in his groove. Unfortunately, it's tough to depend on that right now.

No, I don't think they should trade him.

Brandon Nimmo did not play in the Cleveland series either. Facing two lefties might have had to do something with it. But there is a shoulder injury there. Nobody should really be too frustrated there, as his problems came from a fantastic game-winning catch to secure the sweep in Toronto. Let's see what happens on the homestand.

The All-Star Break is needed.

Thought 4 - Role players coming into their own

There are a few role players performing at a high level at the moment. Usually, this type of praise would be in the 'Singles' category instead of a whole thought. But too many are stepping up at the moment – full praise is needed.

None more noticeable than Alejandro Osuna. There might be an argument for him to be an everyday player. Exactly finding his role when everybody is healthy might be tough. One thing he does when in the lineup, though, is get on base. His OBP is at .341.

Osuna does not provide any slug at all. However, to once again quote Brad Pitt, he gets on base.

Speaking of slug, Justin Foscue. All of a sudden, he is the team's lefty killer. His OPS against them is at 1.250. The road trip saw Foscue get five hits in 15 ABs. Two of those were doubles. I like the idea of platooning him with Joc Pederson at DH, with the occasional start in the field.

Nicky Lopez has a batting average of over .340 for the Rangers. A random pickup in the middle of the season, it's reached the point where he cannot leave the lineup. His defensive versatility shines as well, especially with Seager down.

To an extent, Jacob Junis deserves praise here. He's been good all season, though. Tyler Alexander will receive it instead. Back-to-back saves and then getting a shutdown first inning the next day? Great stuff.

Thought 5 - All it takes in the American League...

You win six straight games, you climb to first place in the American League West. This is why nobody should have ever expected Chris Young to sell at the deadline.

Plainly put, the American League is bad. Like, really bad. It's begging a team not named the Tampa Bay Rays to get consistent results. Not even the New York Yankees are having a fun time at the moment. Their last week has been the complete opposite of the Rangers.

Just six AL teams will head into the weekend with a winning record. Thankfully, the Rangers are one of them.

If success continues through the All-Star Break – success being defined as taking series – it seriously might be enough to get a playoff spot, assuming the team plays .500 ball the rest of the way. That's how bad the American League and the American League West are.

Singles

• Not much on the Miami series here for a couple of reasons. It happened a week ago, and it wasn't very good. Marlins starting pitchers totaled 17 innings in three games. But nobody in baseball is playing better than them.
• Shoutout Evan Carter, who got two hits vs. lefty pitchers on Monday night. We'll take any kind of progress available.
• Simply put, Joc Pederson is raking.
• Tough break for Chris Paddack, who put in a good shift in his lone Rangers appearance. Questions remain about the long-term status of Jack Leiter's spot in the rotation.
• More bullpen talk – another positive guy has been Peyton Gray. Unfortunately, Cole Winn has not been good. Have been rooting for Winn, he just doesn't have it in leverage situations.
• Possibly a separate story but Jake Burger's name has been brought up by multiple national writers in trade deadline talks. Tuesday saw his 15-game on-base streak end. The OPS is over .750 after being under .700 early in June.

Coming Up

No better way to detox from a nine-game road trip than a nine-game homestand. Two division rivals – the Los Angeles Angels and Houston Astros – will come to Arlington. The latter serves as the more important series, as Houston appears to be a threat for the AL West if they ever get healthy. Getting a game up on them would be nice.

But before them will be the Detroit Tigers. If you want to know part of why the Yankees are miserable, look no further.

From there, the baseball world will shift focus to Philadelphia. The Rangers should have decent representation at the All-Star game.