Dumb. Historic. Fun. Awful. Torture. Terrible. Entertaining. The 2023 Texas Rangers

Think of the 2023 Texas Rangers as an amusement park ride that would fit nicely along side the Judge Roy Scream at nearby Six Flags Over Texas.

This ride is nearly over, and whenever, and however, this ends you will say, “Someone got a barf bag I can borrow?”

On Wednesday afternoon at Globe Life Mall, the Rangers continued their push for the playoffs by defeating the Boston Red Sox, 15-5.

The Rangers trailed 4-0 in the second inning before the best part of this team, their bats, awoke to build a lead so big not even their bullpen could blow it.

Just go ahead and plan on the Rangers making the playoffs, and going to the World Series.

While you’re at it, just go ahead and plan on the Rangers missing the playoffs, too.

The Rangers have 10 games remaining, and whatever you think will happen won’t. You’re better off taking a $100 bill and setting it on fire than to place a bet on any Rangers’ outcome.

While you may curse the Rangers, a lot, over this last month, they are in the only division race in all of Major League Baseball worth watching.

The Houston Astros can’t decide if they want to return to the playoffs, or take the easy route by crashing into the offseason.

On Sept. 8, they completed a three-game sweep of the Rangers in Arlington to move into first place in the American League West. Since then they’ve danced with .500 and could find themselves out of the playoffs.

The Astros rallied for a 2-1 win over Baltimore on Wednesday to keep their 1/2 game lead in the division.

The Seattle Mariners, whom the Rangers have seven games remaining, are better than the Rangers but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will finish in front in the standings.

And then there are the Toronto Blue Jays in the East, just sitting there waiting to screw it all up for one of these AL West teams.

“To be in this situation, (I) couldn’t ask for more,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said after the game. “I was out (of the game) for three years and back in the fire.”

As maddening as this has been for the Rangers for more than a month, remember when the season started on March 30, at home against the Phillies, with Jacob deGrom starting.

If someone had told you then that the Rangers would be contending for a playoff spot on Sept. 20, you would have taken all of it, including their near-record number of blown saves.

Injuries, and an atrocious bullpen, will prevent the Rangers from seriously contending for a World Series. But winning the 2023 World Series was never a realistic goal for this franchise.

A winning season, and contending for the playoffs, were the goals.

Done and done.

Since Rangers majority owner Ray Davis had team president Jon Daniels fire manager Chris Woodward on Aug. 15, 2022, and a few days later followed that up by firing JD himself, the team has been entertaining, competitive, and never dull.

In between then and now management has been bold, and aggressive to the point of stupid, and took a 68-win team in 2022 and made them a winner in a year.

The roster had too many holes created by the previous regime to think all of them could be repaired and filled in one, or even two, offseasons.

Convincing Bochy to come out of retirement, thus creating a wider lane between the roles of the general manager and the manager, has turned out to be one of the best moves made by GM Chris Young.

Young signed deGrom to what will likely be a regrettable five-year, $185 million deal. Regrettable in that it’s hard to envision deGrom, who suffered a season-ending elbow injury in early June, will ever be the pitcher he was previously.

The signing, however, was encouraging in that the Rangers’ ownership was not afraid to keep investing in big-time players, much in the way it did the previous offseason.

Adding pitcher Nathan Eovaldi was a coup.

The Rangers kept after it by trading for veteran starting pitcher Max Scherzer. It’s not their fault he followed deGrom’s path by suffering what will be a season-ending injury.

The Rangers started out flying like we haven’t seen around here since 2016, the last year they had a winning record.

They were in first place for months, and followed that by collapsing so hard it made Rangers fans of all ages resign themselves to the reality that they’re team is forever doomed.

The Rangers bounced back from that horrible streak, and are now in a position to win the division, make the playoffs, or neither.

It’s stressful. It’s fun.

“It’s fun,” Rangers catcher Jonah Heim said after the game. “We’re getting to play meaningful games with the chance to make the playoffs.”

No clue how this ride will all end, but pretty sure most of us will need a barf bag when it’s over.