3 Keys to Rangers Upsetting the Rays in AL Wild Card Series
By Tyler Maher
3. Road Warriors
In order to win this series, we're going to need to win at least one game down in Florida. Fortunately for us, Texas was a pretty good road team this year.
While their 40-41 away record may not show it, the Rangers dominated their opponents on the road more often than not. In fact, they posted a +65 run differential away from home.
Based on that, Texas should have had a .588 road winning percentage based on Pythagorean W-L. That would've translated to a 48-33 road record, indicating that the Rangers got pretty unlucky in their road games this year.
The Rays, on the other hand, got a bit lucky at home. They ended up with a 53-28 record at the Trop, but their +88 run differential says their home record should have been closer to 50-31. Still great, but not quite as good.
So while it may look like there's a big disparity between Texas on the road vs. Tampa Bay at home, that's really not the case. They're nearly even in that regard, making the two games at Tropicana Field a virtual toss-up.
We only need to win one of them to send the series back to Texas, but if we can win both and sweep, that will be even better.
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