COMMENTARY

Rangers are sorry to see Astros go

ARLINGTON, Texas - The Harlem Globetrotters have the Washington Generals.

The Rangers have the Houston Astros.

The Rangers closed out the inaugural season series against their newest division and league rival with a 7-3 victory Wednesday night. The teams played 19 times, and the Rangers won 17 of them.

Good-bye, Astros. The 2013 Rangers are surely going to miss you.

Since 1969 and the advent of division play, no team in baseball has beaten an opponent more often in one season than the Rangers beat the Astros.

The hapless Astros are the primary reason the Rangers are still within a game of the second and final wild-card spot in the American League with a long weekend of baseball left to play. The Rangers trail the Cleveland Indians in their bid to become the only team to qualify for the playoffs in each of the past four seasons.

Without the Astros, the Rangers would have vanished from the wild-card picture by now. The Rangers were 87-71 going into Thursday. Subtract the Astros and they were 70-69 against the rest of baseball. Mediocrity is not playoff-worthy.

After opening night, the Rangers have beaten the Astros in 17 of their past 18 meetings, scoring twice as many runs (124-61) along the way. The sight of those orange-trimmed uniforms seemed to bring out the best in these Rangers.

Eleven pitchers picked up victories against the Astros. Matt Garza didn’t even arrive in Arlington until mid-July, and he still beat Houston twice. He also beat the Astros once pitching for the Cubs this season.

Yu Darvish came within one batter of a perfect game against the Astros in April. Darvish also came within one hit of a no-hitter against the Astros in August. Half of the rotation’s four complete games came against the Astros, including one by rookie Martin Perez.

The only team rookie starter Nick Tepesch could beat after April was Houston, and he beat the Astros twice. The Rangers tossed three of their 10 shutouts this season against the Astros and held Houston to two runs or fewer on five other occasions.

Alex Rios made his Rangers debut in August with a pair of hits against the Astros, tying the game with a triple and then scoring the winning run in a 5-4 victory. Joey Butler made his major-league debut against Houston and rapped out a pair of doubles in a 9-5 victory.

The Rangers also started Jurickson Profar in the outfield for the first time in his life in July against the Astros in a short-lived experiment to expand his fielding horizons. That turned out to be the only game the Rangers lost at home to the Astros.

Elvis Andrus belted his first home run of the season in August against Houston, and Rios hit for a rare cycle against the Astros this week. Nelson Cruz hit a grand slam against Houston in July, and struggling David Murphy hit three of his 13 home runs against his hometown Astros.

The Washington Generals were notorious losers, dropping 2,495 consecutive games to the Globetrotters into the 1970s. The Astros are becoming notorious by baseball standards, having lost a club-record 108 games this season - this after losing 107 times in 2012 and 106 in 2011.

Understandably, the Rangers welcomed the Astros to the West this season with open arms. Every button Manager Ron Washington pushed against Houston seemed to be the right one. It was more of the same Wednesday as the Rangers bid the Astros farewell for the season.

The Rangers batted around in the fourth inning, scoring five runs after two were out to take a commanding 6-3 lead. No. 9 hitter Leonys Martin drove in three of the runs with a bases-loaded double.

Now the Rangers have to prove against the Los Angeles Angels that they belong in the playoffs.

It’s too bad the Astros couldn’t have stuck around through the weekend.

Sports, Pages 18 on 09/27/2013

Upcoming Events