Do the Rangers have enough to actually make a run in the last 60 or so games left in this season?
The team is still two games below .500 and 8-games out of first place as they face the new look division leading Astros tonight. However, they are only 2.5 games back in the wild card hunt, but would need to climb over several teams to get that shot. The math is doable for the wild card, but catching Houston will be hard. Overcoming eight games with only 58 remaining would be one of the greatest comebacks in the history of baseball. To take a trip down memory lane here are a few great examples.
• The 2009 Minnesota Twins had a record of 68-68 and were seven games behind the Tigers on September 7, and went on to win the division with a one game walk-off win in a playoff against those Tigers.
• The 1995 Seattle Mariners were under .500 well into the second half of the season, but won 25 of the final 36 games to win the West of the Angels.
• The 1964 Philadelphia Phillies held a 6 1/2 game lead with 12 games to play, but that did not stop the Cardinals from making a ferocious comeback to win the National League title.
• Who can forget those 1969 “Miracle Mets” were 9 1/2 games back of the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 13. With a strong finish to August and a September that saw them go 24-8, New York finished the regular season eight games ahead of the Cubs. That was Nolan Ryan’s rookie season if you are wondering.
• Colorado in 2007 pulled off one of the greatest September comebacks in the history of the game when they went 14-1 over their last 15 games to win the NL Wild Card.
• The New York Yankees of 1951 finished the year going 50-12 to top the Brooklyn Dodgers for the NL pennant. The dramatic run concluded with Bobby Thompson’s famous “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”
• Just 11 years ago in 2004—Sitting at 44-44 halfway through the year, Houston fired manager Jimmy Williams in favor of Phil Garner. Coupled with the acquisition of Carlos Beltran, the Astros won the Wild Card and missed the World Series by just one game.
• The “Ya Gotta Believe” Mets in 1973 finished the season at just 82-79 to win the NL East. The team was 61-71 on Aug. 30, but had an incredible run down the stretch to win the division and eventually the National League championship.
• A painful one to swallow for Red Sox Nation in 2011. The Rays overcame a nine-game deficit on Sept. 1 to win the AL Wild Card on the season’s final day.
• Boston was in seventh place in May back in 1967, and played mostly sub-.500 baseball until the All-Star Game. However, with Carl Yastrzemski’s heroics, the Red Sox pulled off “The Impossible Dream” to win the American League title.
Comebacks do happen in baseball, they tend to be a rarity, but they do happen. Now that the team has a true ace pitcher in Cole Hamels, added some depth to the bullpen, it starts falling on the hitting a defense to push this team forward. On paper, a lineup of Beltre, Fielder, Hamilton, Choo, and Moreland should make a pitcher or two sweat just a little bit. All it takes is for those guys to all get hot and make a stretch run. If the team could run off an 8 or 10 game winning streak and win every series for the remainder of the season, they would be in the hunt at the end. The team had one winning streak like that earlier, that was with Wandy Rodriguez and Ross Detwiler pitching, and those guys are no longer with the team. Instead, the team has a rotation of Hamels, Perez, Martinez, Lewis, and Gallardo with Derek Holland expected back soon. This team could really use a big right-handed bat, but all things considered they have the pitching, and they have what should be a good hitting club. They just need to put it all together.
The Angels are already obliging as they have gone 1-9 over the last 10 and lost six in a row. This team is poised to make a run; Jon Daniels has made the moves necessary to keep them in the hunt. Now the boys of summer need to read their team motto #NeverEverQuit!
