{"id":420873,"date":"2026-08-30T06:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T06:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420873\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T06:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T06:50:15","slug":"texas-rangers-seal-a-decades-worth-of-futility-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420873\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Rangers seal a decade’s worth of futility on the road"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Milwaukee<\/p>\n

Milwaukee Brewers’ William Contreras rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo\/Aaron Gash)<\/p>\n

Aaron Gash\/AP Photo\/Aaron Gash<\/p>\n

MILWAUKEE \u2014 With all due respect to great Texas singer\/songwriter Robert Earl Keen, may we suggest a\u00a0Rangers-themed version of one of his all-time classics? Call it The Road Goes on Forever and the Anguish Never Ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It seems like we write these words almost every year. Then again, after a decade of losing on the road, the classics always hold up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to a 5-3 loss to Milwaukee Saturday night, the Rangers<\/a> fell to 30-41 on the road for the season with \u2014 mercifully, perhaps \u2014 just 10 more road games remaining. It marks the 10th consecutive season they will finish with a losing road record. Even did it in 2023, their lone overall winning season since 2016. That, of course, was all mitigated by an 11-game road winning streak in the postseason<\/a> that was such a phenomenon that it was inscribed into their World Series rings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The thing is, like everything else about the 2026 Rangers, there is some weird division to their record. The Rangers were a good road team, a winning road team, for the first three months of the season. Since July 1, they are now 5-17 away from Arlington. By losing the first two games at Milwaukee, they\u2019ve now lost seven consecutive road series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy obsession is why we fail, and that’s every morning,\u201d manager Skip Schumaker said pre-game. \u201cWin or lose, you try to figure out what went right, what went wrong. And I think the toughest challenge for myself and the staff is trying to figure out what is going on in road games.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mostly, what\u2019s happening is the offense has shut down on the road<\/a>. We know, we know. It feels like the offense has been shut down all season. But through June, the road offered a nice respite from the dead ball environment they encountered at Globe Life Field. \u00a0<\/p>\n

They ranked fourth in the majors in road batting average (.254) through June, going 25-24 in a road-heavy schedule. They were ninth in OPS (.731). And they averaged 4.4 runs per game. It was a winning formula.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Since: They are hitting .218, which ranks 28th, with a .657 OPS, which ranks 27th. They are averaging 3.4 runs per game. A decline of a full run. The difference between when the Rangers score four or more and when they score less is dramatic. When they score at least four, they are 55-15; when they don\u2019t, they are 11-55. It adds up to a 66-70 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And amazingly, they are still only two games back in the AL West after Houston lost at the New York Mets Saturday and two games back in a crowded wild card race after Cleveland lost to Kansas City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the lack of offense meant another solid start by Cal Quantrill was wasted. Though Quantrill allowed a pair of solo first-inning homers, he rebounded to retire the last 14 Brewers he faced and left with the Rangers trailing 3-1 after six.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lack of offense meant the Rangers had to try to be creative and aggressive. That burned them, too. When Brandon Nimmo dribbled a full-count pitch to the right side with two outs in the third, the Rangers tried to anticipate Milwaukee\u2019s intent and sent Cody Freeman, who had broken from second on the pitch, to score. Milwaukee\u2019s Brice Turang made a nice adjustment after charging the ball and had an easy throw home to get Freeman to end the inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [third base coach Corey Ragsdale] thought Turang would try to get the runner at first and with the full count and the runners going,\u201d Schumaker said. \u201cWhen you’re fighting to score runs, you know, sometimes you try to be ultra-aggressive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt didn\u2019t work out, but [Ragsdale] has been great over there this year. He\u2019s hard on himself and I know he\u2019s not happy with himself. But I trust him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Milwaukee\u2019s execution makes teams pay for mistakes<\/a>. And the Rangers paid for another in the seventh. Ezequiel Duran \u2014 who had moved from center field to second base \u2014 rushed in an attempt to turn a double play behind reliever Payton Gray. He fumbled the ball, extending what became a two-run rally. It made\u00a0Nimmo\u2019s eighth-inning homer less meaningful. \u00a0<\/p>\n

This is what happens to teams in funks, whether it be at home, on the road or both. Everybody tries to do a little something extra to help. And instead it leads to another sleepless night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not catching a ton of breaks on the road,\u201d Quantrill said. \u201cWhen we hit, we don\u2019t seem to have our best pitching games and when we pitch well, we just haven\u2019t been able to score enough runs. It\u2019s disappointing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Said Schumaker: \u201cI’m sick of losing on the road. I know those guys are sick of losing on the road. Getting your ass kicked doesn’t feel good. There’s a ton of ego in there and frustration. You want to do everything you can to turn this thing around because it’s still right in front of us, as crazy as it is. It\u2019s right there and we just can\u2019t close it out [on the road] for whatever reason. We just can\u2019t finish. And we\u2019ve gotta start finishing.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Sounds just like the chorus of The Road Goes on Forever and the Anguish Never Ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Milwaukee Brewers’ William Contreras rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run during the first inning of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28,146550,89744,89898],"class_list":["post-420873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-brandon-nimmo","tag-tp-texas-rangers","tag-tp-skip-schumaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}