As Rangers try to reverse AL West struggles, upcoming clumps of division games could provide important - The Dallas Morning News

ANAHEIM, Calif. — And now, kids, welcome to the longest, most difficult chapter of the Rangers’ multi-year course in Building an Identity 101. It’s called: “Winning in the Division.”

On Monday, the Rangers became the last team in MLB in 2021 to start divisional play when they started a six-game road trip with the first of three games against the Los Angeles Angels. It’s not like the Rangers were complaining about the relatively late start. Because have you taken a look at their recent record inside the AL West?

Over Chris Woodward’s first two years as manager, the Rangers were 49-67 against the West. It’s the seventh-worst intradivision record in baseball. A basic rule of champions: You don’t win the division without winning in the division.

“When I first got the job here, I said this then and I’ve said it many times,” Woodward said. “But to stare the opponent right in the face when they know what to expect and beat them, I think is important to becoming a champion. Staring these [teams] in the face and beating them is a good test for us, especially for our younger guys to kind of set the tone. It’s critical.”

Starting with Monday, more than half of the remaining 146 games in the season were against West opponents. The Rangers play the Angels six times in 10 days to finish out April. It’s the lightest intradivisional month on the schedule. Consider the end of the season: The Rangers play 34 of the final 64 games inside the West.

It may not yield a division title this year, but the clumps of games against the division can provide important lessons. Baseball is a game of adjustments. Nothing forces adjustments more than familiarity. Intradivisional play is all about familiarity and the ability to adjust.

“We have to stay ahead of the trends,” Woodward said. “We’re fools if we win a series and think we can just continue to play the same way over and over again and attack things the same way.”

In particular, this applies to the Rangers’ young lineup of hitters. They’ve had plenty of issues attacking pitchers in the young season. For example, five of the hitters in the Rangers’ Monday lineup had at least eight previous matchups with Angels starter Dylan Bundy. That’s the most experience the lineup as a whole had against any starter so far this season. The combined Rangers batting order Monday had a .433 batting average against Bundy.

The Rangers faced Bundy twice last year and twice in 2019. They have upcoming dates with relatively familiar arms such as Jose Quintana, who will face them twice in the next 10 days, Chicago’s Dallas Keuchel and, come May, a host of AL West starters.

“Typically, pitchers win over hitters,” Woodward said. “But hitters have to adjust. They have to see what’s happening. And if they have success, they can’t just think they are going to keep getting fastballs down the middle. You have to be smart. But those are conversations we have had the last couple of years and we will continue to have. And it’s a challenge I look forward to.”

“They have an idea of what we are going to try to do,” said second baseman Nick Solak, who entered the series with a .911 career OPS against the Angels. “You can get pretty familiar with one side or the other. The scouting reports are out. People have experience with one another.”

Solak is the one Ranger who has shown an ability to make adjustments lately. After a slow start to the season, he went 10 for 23 (.435) over his previous six games before Monday.

“For us, every team, every opportunity, we’re going out to win,” Solak said. “It doesn’t matter who we are playing that particular day. These are the teams we see more often. We need to win games against the West but we are trying to just win the day every day.”

Long division

Since 2019, the Rangers have one of the worst records intra-divisional records in baseball, which accounts for 49% of their total games played. A look at the worst:

Team	Division	W-L	Pct.
Detroit	AL Central	37-87	.298
Baltimore	AL East	42-83	.336
Pittsburgh	NL Central	49-78	.386
Miami	NL East	49-73	.402
Colorado	NL West	52-77	.403
Seattle	AL West	48-70	.407
Rangers*	AL West	49-67	.422

*Rangers record is for 2019-20; they had not played an intra-divisional game in 2021 prior to Monday.

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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