WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Rangers first baseman Jake Burger trotted down the first base line in the sixth inning with high socks clung to his calves, eye black matted onto his cheeks and a baseball bat in his right hand.
He looked different, and the momentous home run he'd just hit, it felt different.
Instead, for a Rangers team now on the hunt for different paths to different outcomes, the only thing different between Friday's 8-3 loss against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park and the myriad of other perplexing American League West road losses they've suffered this season was the exact mechanics behind the defeat.
The rest appears impervious to change at the moment.
"We're just finding different ways to lose right now," Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. "When you're on those streaks, that's what happens, and so hopefully tomorrow we can find a way to win."
The Rangers, in the midst of a ghastly road trip that has spun their season into a dive, are now 5-16 in division road games and have yet to win any of the seven series they've played, despite the fact that they entered each with a better overall record than their opponent. They were more than a dozen games above the Athletics in the division standings before Friday's series opener, and despite the fact that they got a timely extra base hit from Burger, something they've lacked en masse this week, the outcome remained the same.
They're 2-3 at Sutter Health Park this season, and coupled with their series loss earlier in the week against the Los Angeles Angels at Angels Stadium, they're 3-9 on the road against the division's two worst teams by record.
"It sucks,” Burger said of their in-division performance. “That’s not how you win a division.”
It's not how you win a Wild Card berth, either, though the Rangers have gotten themselves into too much of a funk to dwell on possibilities that may or may not exists six weeks down the road. The Rangers lost three of four games to the Angels — a team which held baseball's worst record at the start of the series — before an hour-long, late-night flight north. They arrived at the minor league ballpark a half game out of the playoffs, two games back of the division leaders, three games removed from their last win and espoused in an air of potential turnaround.
Schumaker, who said the night before that he has to "think of different ways to find ways to win games," discussed the importance of a team's willingness to try something new amid slumps, whether it's a different batting practice routine, altered cage work, a new postgame routine or things of that ilk. He said that a number of "healthy" conversations were held team wide before the game as the coaching staff looks to "motivate and create an edge."
The Rangers recalled infielder Cody Freeman, a sparkplug type of player, before the game in search of some juice. They tried a new-look lineup, with left fielder Wyatt Langford at leadoff, right fielder Brandon Nimmo in the two-hole, shortstop Corey Seager in the three-hole and infielder Ezequiel Duran at cleanup for the first time this season against a left-handed pitcher. The players themselves even tried something new with three players, Burger included, in high socks for the first time this year.
They were promptly reminded of their biggest weaknesses. The Rangers stranded the bases loaded in the top of the first inning when designated hitter Justin Foscue hit a first-pitch pop up to second base for the third out. The Athletics scored three times in the bottom of the first inning when Rangers starter Kumar Rocker allowed a hit by pitch, a single and a walk before designated hitter Carlos Cortes hit a hung slider into the right-center field gap for a double. The Rangers have hit .218 with the bases loaded (the fifth-worst league wide) and allowed opponents to hit .330 with the bases loaded (the fourth-worst league wide) this season.
The Rangers were held hitless until center fielder Evan Carter batted a ball off of left-handed pitcher Gage Jump's glove for a one-out single in the fifth inning. He lasted all of one pitch on base before left fielder Wyatt Langford expanded for a four-seam fastball and hit into a double play. Their next hit — a softly hit groundball toward shortstop from third baseman Ezequiel Duran — also didn't leave the infield. Their third did when, one at-bat after Duran's single, Burger ended a seven-pitch battle with a 428-foot home run to center field.
It was a significant exhale for an offense that had gone 1 for 18 with runners in scoring position since the start of their losing streak.
"The worst thing we can possibly do right now is put pressure on ourselves and try to hit an eight-run home run," Burger said. "It's about passing the baton, trusting the guy behind you an trusting the guy in front of you to get on base and give a good at-bat."
The celebration was short lived. Rocker tightened his initially erratic command and finished with four scoreless frames before the Rangers replaced him with reliever Chase Silseth in the sixth inning. Silseth recorded two quick outs before Athletics first baseman Jeff McNeil belted a go-ahead home run, and one inning later, with rookie Robby Ahlstrom on the mound, right fielder Lawrence Butler hit a solo shot of his own for a two-run lead. That preceded a meltdown eighth inning in which lefty Tyler Alexander allowed three runs on three hits, two walks and what Schumaker classified as "sloppy" defense.
This division tends to elicit a mess out of them. Their .652 OPS against division opponents on the road this season is more than a 50-point drop from what they’ve posted in all other scenarios. Their 4.59 ERA against division opponents on the road this season is more than a 20-point increase from what they’ve posted in all other scenarios. That’s despite the fact that the AL West is baseball’s only division that lacks a team with a positive run differential and has two franchises that’ve yet to win 50 games this season.
“This division is what it is right now,” Rocker said, “anybody can win it.”
The Rangers certainly could.
Their target just need to be a tad smaller than that right now.
"When you are on hot streaks, you find different ways to win, so that's kind of the goal," Schumaker said. "We've got to win one game first."
SubscribeSign up for the Morning Roundup, a free newsletter delivering the latest North Texas news each morning.This article originally published at Rangers' perplexing struggles in AL West away games continue in loss to Athletics.
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