ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Texas Rangers made a significant push for a playoff spot even without Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Nathan Eovaldi. They had a 13-3 span with a bunch of young fill-in players and a pair of six-game winning streaks to get within two games of the AL West lead.
Just over a week later, the Rangers are in a seven-game losing streak that is their longest of the season and now have no realistic chance of playing in October.
Texas (79-77) went into an off day Monday with six games left and were five games behind Houston (84-72) and Cleveland, who were tied for the American League’s final wild-card spot.
“No doubt we have lost the momentum. ... We're in a funk,” manager Bruce Bochy said after a series-ending 4-2 home loss to Miami on Sunday.
“We put together a lot of good games over that stretch, and we put ourselves in such a good position,” pitcher Merrill Kelly said. “Just to turn around and kind of give it away, I think is the most frustrating part.”
Two years after winning its only World Series title and Bochy getting his fourth in his debut with Texas, there won't be a Giants-like rebound. San Francisco twice under Bochy won the World Series, missed the playoffs the following season and then came back the next year to win another championship. The Rangers were 78-84 last season.
The Rangers would have to finish the regular season with another six-game winning streak and still get a lot of improbable results to make this postseason.
Their final three-game home series starts Tuesday against Minnesota. They finish with three games at Cleveland, after the Guardians host Detroit (85-71) in a three-game series with a chance to take over the AL Central lead.
Houston, just swept in three games by AL West-leading Seattle, would have to lose its remaining six games against the Athletics and the Los Angeles Angels. Texas would also need either Cleveland or Detroit to sweep that series, or the Tigers to take two out of three games. If the Guardians win two out of three, both teams would have 86 wins, one more than possible for Texas.
On the way to the World Series title two years ago, the Rangers went into the postseason as the wild card after the Astros matched them for the AL West lead on the last day of the regular season. Houston had the tiebreaker then, and does again this year after a three-game sweep of the Rangers last week to take the season series again.
“Houston, obviously, is the big one,” said Kelly, the trade deadline acquisition from Arizona. “That was the kind of the make-or-break series for us. ... The Houston series was kind of the telling point of the way we were going to end up.”
That came the week after the Rangers had swept a three-game series against Milwaukee, which has the best record in the majors.
Texas has been without its half-billion dollar middle infield since late August.
Semien has missed 27 games since fouling a pitch off his left foot Aug. 22, a week before Seager had an appendectomy and has been out 21 games. Both were hopeful of playing again to wrap up their fourth season in Texas, but that may not be necessary.
“Where we're at will play a part in this,” Bochy said.
Seager signed a $325 million, 10-year deal, and Semien got $175 million for seven years.
Eovaldi was 11-3 with a career-best 1.73 ERA over his 14 MLB seasons before getting shut down because of a rotator cuff stain in late August.
Outfielder Evan Carter broke his right wrist when hit by a pitch in the same game Semien got hurt. Right fielder Adolis García missed 19 games during two IL stints since mid-August, and the slugger has still been limited by a quad strain since reinstated last week.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
Texas Rangers second baseman Cody Freeman, left, reaches for a throw as Miami Marlins' Otto Lopez steals second base during the second inning of a baseball game Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Texas Rangers players observe a moment of silence for Scott Littlefield, Rangers' special assistant of player personnel, prior to a baseball game against the Miami Marlins Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Merrill Kelly throws a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Ronaldo Bolaños)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Police renewed their search Monday for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others, a day after they released a person of interest after determining the evidence pointed "in a different direction.”
Officials announced the man's release at news conference late Sunday, marking a setback in the investigation of Saturday's attack on the Ivy League school's campus and adding to mounting questions about the attack and investigation, including a lack of video evidence and whether the focus on the person of interest might have given the killer more time to escape justice.
Providence residents and students were relieved early Sunday when officials announced they had detained a man at a Rhode Island hotel in connection with the attack and lifted a lockdown. But that relief was short-lived, as Mayor Brett Smiley said hours later that investigators didn't know whether the gunman was still in the area.
“We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety,” he said.
The release of the person of interest left law enforcement without a known suspect, with officials pledging to redouble their efforts by asking neighborhood residents and businesses for video surveillance that might help identify the attacker.
“We have a murderer out there,” Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
Authorities said Sunday that one of the reasons they lacked video of the shooter was because Brown's engineering building doesn't have many cameras.
The mayor said there have been no credible threats of further violence since the shooting, and the city's schools were open Monday.
On Sunday morning, officials took into custody a person of interest at a Hampton Inn in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Providence. Two people familiar with the matter identified that individual as a 24-year-old man from Wisconsin, though authorities never released his name.
“I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes you head in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another, and that’s exactly what has happened over the last 24 hours or so,” Neronha said.
He said there was some evidence that pointed to the man authorities detained, but “that evidence needed to be corroborated and confirmed. And over the last 24 hours leading into just very, very recently, that evidence now points in a different direction.”
Authorities believe they are looking for a person shown in a small, short clip of video footage walking away, the mayor said. The person's back is to the camera.
“Right now, we don't have any evidence to suggest that it was more than that individual,” Smiley said Monday on ABC's “Good Morning America.”
Despite an enhanced police presence at Brown, officials are not recommending another shelter-in-place order like the one that followed the Saturday afternoon shooting, when hundreds of officers searched for the attacker and urged students and staff to remain indoors.
The shooting occurred as final exams were underway.
The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building, getting off more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told AP. Two handguns were recovered when the person of interest was taken into custody and authorities also found two loaded 30-round magazines, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity.
Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom in a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department.
The attack set off hours of chaos on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods, as hundreds of officers searched for the shooter. One video showed students in a library shaking and wincing as they heard loud bangs just before police entered the room to clear the building.
During the lockdown, which wasn't lifted until Sunday, after the person of interest was taken into custody, many students remained barricaded in rooms while others hid behind furniture and bookshelves as police searched for the shooter.
One of the nine wounded students has been released from the hospital, Paxson said Sunday. Seven others were in critical but stable condition, and one was in critical condition.
On Sunday evening, city leaders, residents and others gathered at a park to honor the victims. The event originally was scheduled as a Christmas tree and Hanukkah menorah lighting.
Smiley said he visited some wounded students and was inspired by their courage, hope and gratitude. “The resilience that these survivors showed and shared with me, is frankly pretty overwhelming,” he said.
Brown, the seventh-oldest higher education institution in the U.S., is one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges, with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students. The school canceled all remaining classes and exams for the semester.
Contributing were Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Jennifer McDermott in Providence; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington
A police vehicle is parked at an intersection near crime scene tape at Brown University, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., following a Saturday shooting at the university. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
A bouquet of flowers rests on snow, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, on the campus of Brown University not far from where a shooting took place, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Passers-by walk past crime scene tape at an entrance to Brown University, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., following the Saturday, Dec. 13, shooting at the university. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Providence and Brown University community members gather during a vigil at Lippitt Memorial Park, a day after a shooting occurred on Brown University campus. Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)
People hold candles during a vigil, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., for those injured or killed during the Saturday shooting on Brown University campus. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
