Fifteen games remain, and the Texas Rangers are still within reach of October - if they can treat Thursday's loss in Seattle as fuel instead of freight.
Texas is 72-75, three games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West and two games behind the last AL wild-card berth, according to CBS Sports. That math is unforgiving: every series now carries playoff weight, and the next one starts Friday night at Chase Field against the Arizona Diamondbacks at 8:40 p.m. CT.
Manager Skip Schumaker did not soft-pedal the feeling after a 4-3 defeat that erased a 3-0 lead. "We're going to feel this one, no doubt... Then have to flush it right away when we get to Arizona," he said, per Dallas Sports Journal and CBS Sports accounts of the postgame.
How the lead disappeared
Jacob deGrom had given Texas every reason to believe the night would tilt its way. The right-hander threw six scoreless innings, allowing one hit and no walks with 12 strikeouts before leaving with groin tightness, Dallas Sports Journal reported. He had thrown 92 pitches (64 strikes) and was still hitting 99 mph when the decision came to pull him.
The Mariners scored four runs in the seventh. Julio Rodríguez's three-run home run off Jakob Junis was the swing that flipped the scoreboard, CBS Sports reported. Logan Gilbert had matched the intensity from the Seattle side with 11 strikeouts over seven innings; both starters are Stetson products, and Elias flagged the rare college overlap of two 10-plus-strikeout starts in one game.
What "flush it" has to mean on Friday
Schumaker's phrase is managerial shorthand for a short memory. The Rangers cannot replay Junis's seventh while Merrill Kelly and Kumar Rocker prepare for Friday's opener, a matchup CBS Sports listed for the series. Arizona is chasing its own October path; Texas walks into Chase Field needing wins more than moral victories.
deGrom's status hangs over that plan.
Schumaker said the groin tightness started when deGrom covered first, that a trainer visited in the sixth, and that deGrom wanted to continue - evidence, in the manager's words, of how tough he still is. deGrom said the groin tightened in the fourth, that he told the staff he was good, and that after the sixth he chose not to push so the team still had a chance to win.
