Texas Rangers at .500 go into final week leading AL West, have been close to top all year

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Being even is good enough for the Texas Rangers to lead the AL West going in the final week of the regular season.

With six games left in a somewhat strange season, the 78-78 Rangers have a one-game lead over Houston. They have stayed near the top of the division all year, never trailing by more than three games or ahead by more than two.

“A weird one for sure,” first baseman Jake Burger said. “The positive side is we’ve been in the race the entire time. … We’ve kind of held our head above water, even if it’s just barely at times. We’ve given ourselves a chance to do something special, and that’s all you can ask for out of a team.”

The Rangers haven’t been to the playoffs since winning their only World Series title in 2023, when they were a wild card after Houston matched them at 90-72 on the final day of the regular season. The Astros had the division tiebreaker then, and do again this year when there might not be an available wild-card spot for a second AL West team.

“We’re in position to make the playoffs. It doesn’t matter what the record is, that’s the goal,” first-year Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “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.”

With their .500 record, the Rangers would already be eliminated from playoff contention in the National League.

They went into their off day Monday eight games behind Philadelphia, the NL’s third wild card, and far behind division winners Milwaukee (20 games), the Los Angeles Dodgers (18) and Atlanta (14).

No big league team has stayed within such a tight margin of their division lead like the five-game gap for Texas. The league average between biggest leads and biggest deficits is nearly 16 1/2, with Houston (nine) and Minnesota (9 1/2) the only other teams under 10.

“The good part is we haven’t gotten too far away,” right fielder Brandon Nimmo said. “I feel like we’re playing good baseball, and if you can get your foot in the door, then that’s a dangerous thing.”

Nimmo was on the Mets in 2024 when they overcame a 22-33 start and being 17 1/2 games out of the division lead. They made the playoffs with a late comeback win in the opener of a makeup doubleheader at Atlanta a day after every other team had finished the regular season.

New York then won the NL Wild Card and NL Division Series before losing the NL Championship Series in six games to the now two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers.

“Most of the time it’s just better to be the hot team,” Nimmo said.

The Rangers have never been too far from .500 this year after going 81-81 last season, the only break-even record for the franchise that began as the Washington Senators in 1961 and moved to Texas in 1972.

The low mark was six games under at 25-31 on May 28, when all five AL West teams had losing records. Texas was last three games over .500 at 55-52 on July 28.

Even with a loss Sunday in their series finale against Toronto, the Rangers have won nine of 13 games. They had been first alone in the AL West only one day since the end of July before passing Houston on Saturday.

Texas, which won its last division title 10 years ago, missed a chance for a two-game lead when the Astros were swept by Atlanta on Sunday in their final home series.

The Rangers open a a three-game home series against the Mets on Tuesday, then play three games at Minnesota. Houston has two games in Seattle, then four against the Athletics.

“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,” Burger said. “As far as we’re concerned, we’re playing playoff baseball, backs-against-the-wall type mentality. It doesn’t matter what the record was the first 140 games.”

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AP Sports Writer Schuyler Dixon contributed to this report.

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