Rangers’ resolve high after tough stretch

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK — Rangers general manager Chris Young and the rest of the front office worked tirelessly over the last offseason and into this year’s Trade Deadline to put this club in a position to compete for a World Series.

For much of the season, the Rangers have looked exactly like a World Series contender. Texas was in sole possession of first place in the American League West for 111 days (since May 5), and alone or tied atop the division for 147 of the season’s first 148 days (exception: April 8).

Those dynamics have shifted over the last two weeks, with Seattle surging alongside Texas and Houston in the battle for the West. At the conclusion of Tuesday night’s games, the three clubs were tied for first place.

Since opening August with five series wins, a stretch that included an eight-game winning streak, the Rangers have gone 3-9 with three series losses, including sweeps at the hands of the Brewers and D-backs — though they bounced back to take the first two games of the three-game set against the Mets that marks the end of the road trip.

“We’ve lost in a variety of ways,” Young said to reporters Tuesday at Citi Field. “There have been a few games where we haven’t been in it, but there have been a lot of games where we’ve had chances to win and ultimately a couple of plays here or there, things that we probably haven’t executed as well as we could have led to some losses.

“Some of that’s natural over the course of the season. Certainly you hope you can end it a little sooner than we have. But that said, we’re still in a great position as we sit here before September 1 and in a very good division with a chance to play good baseball and accomplish our goals for the season. We’re still in a very good spot.”

Manager Bruce Bochy said he likes to maintain a level of calmness, even throughout tough stretches, but he acknowledged it hasn’t exactly been a fun two weeks. After Tuesday night’s win over the Mets, Mitch Garver stopped short of saying that losing was good for the club at all, but he did note it felt like a good reminder of what October can be like with close games and lots of energy.

After a series win in New York, the club’s first since Aug. 14-16 against the Angels, everybody in the clubhouse believes this momentum will carry through September.

“Again, I think it was natural over the course of the season to go through a period where we were going to not play our best baseball,” Young said. “My optimistic view of this is that this team needed to go through something like this to prepare us for September and hopefully October and build the character, the resolve that it takes to win in those environments.”

There’s 30 days of baseball left. The Rangers will need to play their best over the course of the month to come out on top. The division lead may have slipped away, but winning baseball games is all the Rangers are worried about right now.

“I worry about us,” Young said of scoreboard watching. “Like I’ve said, if we just play our baseball — it’s a very talented team — if we play solid, fundamentally sound Texas Ranger baseball, I feel like we should win plenty of games.”