ARLINGTON, Texas – Baseball is a team sport played out through individual matchups. The Rangers problem in 2022: Plenty of good individual performances; but the team not so much.
And so it was Sunday that the Rangers fell 10-4 to Cleveland and watched the Guardians win their first-ever AL Central title. Oh, Cleveland had won the division before, just never as the Guardians. Meanwhile, the Rangers fell to a season-worst 22-games below .500, all but assuring themselves another 90-loss season. They are 65-87 with 10 games to go.
On a day when manager Tony Beasley hoped the Rangers would delay the Guardians’ gratification, if nothing else, they instead made three errors. Cleveland scored an extra run when worn-down catcher Jonah Heim didn’t aggressively pursue a ball that got by him. Back-to-back balls got past Corey Seager and Marcus Semien.
“We needed to go out and play clean baseball and we didn’t do that,” Beasley said. “I don’t think there was a lack of energy across the board, but there were things that looked bad. And that’s not the way we want to play or coach. We just didn’t play a good brand of baseball.”
But here’s the funny thing: If you break the Rangers’ season down to individual performances, plenty of those hold up. These are the kinds of things a team is left to ponder while watching an opponent clinch a playoff berth. It has been the perfect tale of their season. Their individual parts performed nicely enough, but they are nowhere near the sum of those parts.
They are on the verge of having a player drive in 100 runs and another score 100. Over the last 15 years, that’s happened twice. On both occasions they will won their division. They will likely end up with a quartet of 25 homer guys. And a pair of 20-20 players. Nice accomplishments.
On Sunday, for example, Adolis García returned to the lineup after missing a game due to a sore left wrist, the result of being hit by a 100 mph pitch from Cleveland’s Emmanuel Clase on Friday. He drove in Marcus Semien with a sacrifice fly for his 96th RBIs. It was Semien’s 95th run scored.
“It’s important to him,” Beasley said of Garcia’s push for 100 RBIs. “A hundred RBIs, 100 runs, those numbers are important. It means something in the industry, as well. He still has goals he wants to achieve. It gives him some motivation. He still thinks he can go 30-30.”
Said García, who has 25 homers and 25 steals with 10 games to go: “Oh, yeah, I’m going for it. I think that’s the kind of player I can be. It would mean a lot to show that.”
Some other potential milestones, all of which highlight the season was often a success at the individual level, even if it did not show up in team performance:
-- Semien: Semien is two behind the human race’s leader in the AL in runs scored, Jose Altuve. Of course, Aaron Judge, who came from another planet, had 128 entering Sunday. The difference between Semien and Altuve: Semien has had 100 more plate appearances than Altuve. It would be the third time in the last four seasons Semien has reached 100 runs, the lone exception being the 60-game 2020 season.
--Nathaniel Lowe: A week ago, Lowe was within six points of the AL batting lead in his bid to become the first fourth Ranger to ever win a batting title after Julio Franco, Michael Young and Josh Hamilton. But, after a 5 for 27 slump in his last seven days, he’s fallen to .304. The batting title seems out of reach, but a .300 season is still more than feasible. Lowe, with 25 homers already, is one of three Rangers already at 25 or better. Semien, who has 24, would be the fourth.
-- Bubba Thompson: Thompson has 17 steals in his first 46 games and has a chance to be the first Ranger to ever steal 20 bases in his first 50 games, a testament to not only his exceptional speed, but his refined baserunning skill. Julio Borbon reached 20 steals in his 53rd game with the Rangers in 2010.
--Martín Pérez: While Pérez figures to finish in the top 10 in the AL in innings pitched, a true workhorse stat, it appears he will fall just shy of his career high. Pérez is at 183 1/3 innings with two starts left and would need the equivalent of back-to-back complete games to pass his career mark of 198 2/3 set in 2016 and reach 200 innings for the first time.
Briefly: The Rangers are likely to use some combination of relievers to fill in for RHP Dane Dunning in Tuesday’s start at Seattle. The club is likely to recall an extra pitcher, perhaps one of RHPs Tyson Miller or A.J. Alexy to pick up some innings. … You’re hot then you’re cold: INF Mark Mathias had five consecutive hits, including three homers, in a stretch 10 days ago. Since: He’s 0 for 14 with 11 strikeouts. He had nine consecutive plate appearances that ended in strikeouts, including one as a pinch hitter Sunday.
