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July 18, 2014
A Brief History of Texas's Worst Stretches
Given Texas's predicament, I researched the worst stretches in franchise history to determine how the current malaise measures against the team's long and occasionally sordid history. I arbitrarily chose 15 to 40 games -- long enough to be meaningful but no more than a quarter of a (typical) season. In the case of a tie for worst record in any given number of games, I chose the stretch with the worst pythagorean winning percentage.
There is 1972, and there is everything else. The inaugural Rangers weren't an expansion squad but played like one, losing an MLB-worst 100 games in a slightly strike-shortened season. Every franchise-worst stretch between 15 and 40 games (and undoubtedly many more outside that range) occurred in 1972. In particular, the Rangers lost 30 of 34 toward the end of the season, and every horrific stretch on the list incorporates some or all of those games.
So, I created another list of the worst stretches after 1972. Only five seasons appear on the list: 1973, 1980, 1982, 2003 and 2014.
Post-1972 Stretches
| When | Games | Record | Run Diff. | Pythag. |
| 1982 / games 12-26 | 15 | 1-14 | -37 | .187 |
| 1982 / games 11-26 | 16 | 1-15 | -38 | .196 |
| 1980 / games 140-156 | 17 | 2-15 | -48 | .210 |
| 1982 / games 9-26 | 18 | 2-16 | -41 | .215 |
| 2003 / games 53-71 | 19 | 2-17 | -63 | .221 |
| 2003 / games 53-72 | 20 | 2-18 | -67 | .222 |
| 2003 / games 53-73 | 21 | 2-19 | -69 | .220 |
| 2003 / games 53-74 | 22 | 2-20 | -71 | .217 |
| 2014 / games 72-94 | 23 | 3-20 | -67 | .218 |
| 2014 / games 71-94 | 24 | 3-21 | -71 | .221 |
| 2014 / games 71-95 | 25 | 3-22 | -74 | .228 |
| 2014 / games 69-94 | 26 | 4-22 | -69 | .253 |
| 2003 / games 48-74 | 27 | 4-23 | -77 | .254 |
| 2003 / games 47-74 | 28 | 5-23 | -75 | .265 |
| 1982 / games 11-39 | 29 | 6-23 | -63 | .230 |
| 2003 / games 48-77 | 30 | 6-24 | -88 | .255 |
| 1973 / games 108-138 | 31 | 6-25 | -69 | .291 |
| 2003 / games 48-79 | 32 | 7-25 | -87 | .269 |
| 2014 / games 62-94 | 33 | 7-26 | -80 | .270 |
| 2014 / games 62-95 | 34 | 7-27 | -83 | .273 |
| 1973 / games 104-138 | 35 | 7-28 | -70 | .306 |
| 1973 / games 103-138 | 36 | 8-28 | -68 | .314 |
| 2014 / games 58-94 | 37 | 9-28 | -82 | .291 |
| 2014 / games 58-95 | 38 | 9-29 | -85 | .292 |
| 2014 / games 55-93 | 39 | 10-29 | -92 | .278 |
| 2014 / games 55-94 | 40 | 10-30 | -95 | .275 |
1973 -- Final record: 57-105. Record outside longest stretch on this list: 49-77. Interestingly, only the '73 squad was expected to be terrible out of the gate, and so it was. The last win before an 8-28 slide was a 4-2 victory over the Angels backed by seven innings of one-run ball from none other than David Clyde.
1980 -- Final record: 76-85. Record outside longest stretch on this list: 74-70. Texas had finished five games out of first in each of the three previous seasons. The '80 edition underplayed its pythagorean record by five wins, courtesy of a 20-30 record in one-run games. They had a record of 69-68 entering the stretch and won five of seven afterwards.
1982 -- Final record: 64-98. Record outside longest stretch on this list: 58-75. In 1981, the Rangers finished at a strike-shortened 57-48 and missed the split-season playoffs by losing its final game before the strike. They expected to contend in 1982, but a flurry of moves in the last two weeks of Spring Training radically altered the club. 2B Bump Wills was traded for reliever Paul Mirabella, a complaining OF Al Oliver was shipped to Montreal for Larry Parrish and Dave Hostetler, and, most infamously, promising pitchers Ron Darling and Walt Terrell moved to the Mets for OF Lee Mazilli. The Rangers lost 12 straight after a 6-4 start and never recovered.
2003 -- Final record: 71-91. Record outside longest stretch on this list: 64-66. Until this season, 2003 dominated the list. This squad was similar to 2014 in some respects. Until the collapse, it hovered around .500 despite a significantly negative run differential. The stretch commenced about two months into the season.
2014 -- Final Record: TBD. Record outside longest stretch on this list: 31-30.
1972 Stretches
| When | Games | Record | Run Diff. | Pythag. |
| 1972 / games 137-151 | 15 | 0-15 | -43 | .149 |
| 1972 / games 137-152 | 16 | 1-15 | -42 | .158 |
| 1972 / games 135-151 | 17 | 1-16 | -45 | .165 |
| 1972 / games 130-147 | 18 | 2-16 | -49 | .160 |
| 1972 / games 130-148 | 19 | 2-17 | -50 | .161 |
| 1972 / games 131-150 | 20 | 2-18 | -51 | .158 |
| 1972 / games 130-150 | 21 | 2-19 | -56 | .152 |
| 1972 / games 130-151 | 22 | 2-20 | -58 | .157 |
| 1972 / games 129-151 | 23 | 2-21 | -59 | .164 |
| 1972 / games 124-147 | 24 | 3-21 | -63 | .158 |
| 1972 / games 124-148 | 25 | 3-22 | -64 | .158 |
| 1972 / games 125-150 | 26 | 3-23 | -68 | .152 |
| 1972 / games 124-150 | 27 | 3-24 | -70 | .151 |
| 1972 / games 124-151 | 28 | 3-25 | -72 | .155 |
| 1972 / games 124-152 | 29 | 4-25 | -71 | .160 |
| 1972 / games 121-150 | 30 | 4-26 | -75 | .182 |
| 1972 / games 121-151 | 31 | 4-27 | -77 | .185 |
| 1972 / games 119-150 | 32 | 4-28 | -80 | .185 |
| 1972 / games 119-151 | 33 | 4-29 | -82 | .188 |
| 1972 / games 118-151 | 34 | 4-30 | -83 | .192 |
| 1972 / games 118-152 | 35 | 5-30 | -82 | .196 |
| 1972 / games 119-154 | 36 | 6-30 | -82 | .196 |
| 1972 / games 118-154 | 37 | 6-31 | -83 | .200 |
| 1972 / games 114-151 | 38 | 6-32 | -85 | .204 |
| 1972 / games 114-152 | 39 | 7-32 | -84 | .207 |
| 1972 / games 115-154 | 40 | 8-32 | -81 | .215 |
Uncle Tupelo, "Fall Down Easy," from Still Feel Gone, 1991
Posted by Lucas at July 18, 2014 05:30 PM