The Texas Rangers struggle to regain momentum against the Milwaukee Brewers, pushing the sliding club further from playoff contention.
The Texas Rangers' trip to American Family Field hasn't gone according to plan.
This is a team that has playoff aspirations on their mind, but for whatever reason, once they get to .500, everything begins to fall apart.
Despite improving to 66-66 on Monday, Aug. 24, the Rangers have dropped their next four games, and none of them have been particularly close.
Their latest loss saw the Milwaukee Brewers prevail, 5-3, and while this two-run loss seems like a step in the right direction, it's still nowhere near good enough if the Rangers want to be a serious playoff contender.
Rangers fall despite out-hitting the Brewers
Coming off a game where they recorded just two hits, the Rangers recorded eight this time around, which is one more than what the Brewers had. Obviously, that's no consolation prize as they still came out on the losing end of this one.
The Rangers were able to chase the Brewers starter after five innings, and even though Brandon Nimmo crushed a two-run homer in the eighth inning, that still wasn't enough to erase an early deficit.
Milwaukee's bats came out hot with a pair of first-inning home runs from Jackson Chourio and William Contreras, and that led to Cal Quantrill picking up his fifth loss of the year.
Now 6-5, Quantrill was credited with three earned runs in his six-inning start. He only allowed four hits, but two of those were solo homers, and that was the last thing this Brewers team needed to catch wind of in the first inning.
Peyton Gray relieved Quantril and allowed two runs in the seventh, one of which was unearned, and then Jakob Junis had to navigate a three-walk inning, one that required 28 pitches to get out of, but he did indeed leave the bases loaded.
Nimmo, Cody Freeman homer in the loss
Two of the Rangers' hits were long balls, and Nimmo's certainly gave this team life, but they were retired in order in the ninth inning as the Brewers closer, Trevor Megill, is as hot as it gets.
The Rangers let Megill record all three outs in just seven pitches, so it was a rather lifeless way to end what could've been a solid comeback.
Regardless, Nimmo hit his 14th home run of the season while it was Freeman's first.
Freeman, 25, hit three homers in his rookie season a year ago, but this was his first of the 2026 campaign.
