Rangers enter final week at .500 with Quantrill shelved and a one-game lead

ARLINGTON - A one-game lead and a .500 record are both true for the Texas Rangers heading into the final week. So is the thinner rotation that has to protect that lead.

Sunday's 7-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Globe Life Field dropped Texas to 78-78, but Houston's 4-2 defeat to Atlanta the same afternoon left the Rangers alone atop the American League West by a game. The Associated Press noted the Astros still own the season-series tiebreaker, the same edge that decided the West against Texas in 2023. Six games remain for both clubs.

Monday is an off day.

Quantrill's season ends on the injured list

The MRI that followed Saturday's early exit produced a hard answer. The Rangers placed right-hander Cal Quantrill on the 15-day injured list Sunday with a right lat strain, ending his regular season, Field Level Media reported via Reuters. Winston Santos was recalled from Triple-A Round Rock in the corresponding move.

Quantrill had left after 1 1/3 innings Saturday with right lat tightness. His final four-seamer that night was logged at 87.8 mph against a season average near 93.8 on that pitch.

He finishes the regular season 9-5 with a 2.86 ERA in 110 innings - a rebound year that MLB Trade Rumors noted had made him one of Texas's steadiest arms since mid-August alongside Jacob deGrom.

Manager Skip Schumaker had said Saturday there was "no real update" beyond the MRI. The IL move closes that question for September. MLB Trade Rumors framed the lat strain as likely keeping Quantrill out of a potential Wild Card Series that would open Sept. 29, with a Division Series return still possible if Texas advances that far.

deGrom exits early as Toronto avoids the sweep

deGrom (11-10) took the loss Sunday after 4 1/3 innings, five hits, four walks and two strikeouts. Brett Bateman reached and scored three times for Toronto. Nathan Lukes drove him in twice, and Kazuma Okamoto's RBI single in the fifth broke a 2-2 tie, the Associated Press reported. Jake Burger's 395-foot home run had briefly tied it in the fourth.

deGrom left with the bases loaded in the fifth and Texas down 3-2. The AP game story said he has been dealing with mild groin tightness. Robert Garcia induced an inning-ending double-play grounder on his first pitch. Toronto then piled on four runs in the seventh. Spencer Arrighetti (9-9) earned the win in relief of Spencer Miles's three-inning opener.

The Blue Jays improved to 77-79 and remained three games behind the Chicago White Sox for the final AL wild-card berth after Chicago's 8-1 win over Detroit, Field Level Media reported. Toronto avoided a weekend sweep. Texas took the first two games of the series.

Six games, and Houston's easier stretch

The Mets open a three-game series at Globe Life Field on Tuesday. Texas then closes the regular season with three games at Minnesota. Houston plays two at Seattle, then four against the Athletics, the AP's Stephen Hawkins wrote in a Monday feature on the Rangers' odd .500 season.

That schedule split is the board now that Quantrill is gone. Houston's remaining opponents are out of the West race. Texas still has to navigate New York and a road finish in Minneapolis without the starter who had covered six or more innings in six straight appearances before Saturday.

Schumaker, in Hawkins's Monday piece, put the record question aside: "We're in position to make the playoffs. It doesn't matter what the record is, that's the goal. So if you would have told me that this date in spring training that you had a chance to get into the playoffs, I would have signed up for it."

First baseman Jake Burger struck the same note. "It doesn't matter what the macro view of it has looked like. We're in the micro moments of making or breaking a season," he said. "As far as we're concerned, we're playing playoff baseball, backs-against-the-wall type mentality."

A lead that still requires winning outright

Texas has won nine of 13 even with Sunday's loss, per the AP. The club had been alone in first only one day since the end of July before passing Houston on Saturday. Atlanta's sweep of the Astros denied Texas a chance at a two-game cushion.

The tiebreaker has not moved. An even finish still sends Houston through as West champion. Without Quantrill, the final week becomes a test of how much the remaining rotation and bullpen bridge can hold a one-game edge against a club that finishes against softer competition. The Mets series is the first of those six tests.

Sources

local10.com

NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Reuters

Reuters

mlbtraderumors.com

ESPN

ESPN