I am a so so fan. Is there any hope?
Realistically barring some Oakland A's early 2000's kind of 20 straight wins run in the next three months, the answer is No. The math at this point says this is a 70-75 win team and I suspect the Rangers will be sellers in a few weeks unloading 2 maybe 3 or even 4 starters (Scherzer, Heaney, Lorenzen, and maybe Eovaldi) and a few bullpen arms (Robertson and Yates) to stockpile some young talent and set up for next year.
Langford had an amazing catch today and drove in the only Ranger run so watching him be in the rookie of the year conversation will be fun and I am interested to see what we get from Mahle and possibly DeGrom as we head into August to get an idea of next season.
I am hoping that Texas makes a real run at extending Eovaldi because a rotation next year of DeGrom, Eovaldi, Mahle, Bradford, and Gray, with Dunning, Urena, Cole Winn, and Jacob Latz for long relief and spot starts, could be pretty potent and if the Bochy model of being successful every other year takes hold then setting up for next season should be the goal of the next two and a half months.
I will get pushback on this (Hey Viper Happy Fourth!) but I haven't given up on Leiter either. He is pitching really well in the hitter-friendly Triple-A league Round Rock is in and yes his first two MLB starts were dreadful but remember how bad Bradford was last year when he first came up and he grew into playing a critical role in the WS run, I suspect Leiter can too and would like to see him get that chance this August and September with multiple starts/appearances.