The Texas Rangers failed in their bid for a series sweep over the A’s, and now face the daunting task of staying in the playoff hunt during a four-game series against the Rays.

ARLINGTON — Winning three consecutive games in the same series, be it in this wacky season in the American League or one that makes some semblance of sense, is not an easy chore. That’s not an excuse for the Texas Rangers. That’s the way baseball go.

But there isn’t much excuse for not winning three in a row against the 2026 A’s, who have the worst run differential in the majors and entered Wednesday tied for the worst record. Seemingly just to prove that point, they were outscored by 13 runs in the first two games of the series.

Yeah, the A’s are a major-league team, and, yeah, they practice and drive fast cars, too. But they are playing for 2027, maybe for 2028 when they move to Las Vegas, while the Rangers are playing something much more immediate.

With 21 games to go in the regular season and hanging by a thread in the playoff hunt, the Rangers need to beat bad teams. They need to beat the good ones, too, and the AL’s best is coming to town the next four days.

The Rangers failed to pull off a three-game sweep of the A’s on Wednesday, surrendering five home runs in a 9-2 loss that threatened to knock them two games behind the Astros in the AL West. The Rangers still managed a series win, which is always a priority, but not getting the sweep stung.

“I would have liked to have won today, but two out of three was a good start to a homestand,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “Obviously, we have a tough series ahead of us, so it was important to win the series at least.”

The Rangers led 2-0 after two innings on solo homers by Ezequiel Duran and Justin Foscue, and seemed to be on their way after two scoreless innings from Cody Bradford. But the A’s connected for five home runs over the next three innings, with Henry Bolte knocking two-run homers in the third and fourth against Bradford in had his first rocky start since coming off the injured list.

Bradford, who also allowed a solo shot to Zack Gelof after the first Bolte blast, surrendered five runs in four innings as he struggled with is fastball command. Wednesday marked his sixth start off the IL, and the Rangers have lost the last five. Until facing the A’s, though, Bradford (0-4) had kept the Rangers in the game.

“Fastball command and changeup command were hit and miss today at times,” he said. “Pretty much my whole life, I set my eyes and away and throw a fastball down and away, it pretty much ends up right that. It’s not the case right now.”

The A’s tacked on three more runs on two homers, including one by Jonah Heim, in the fifth against Robby Ahlstrom and struck for a run in the seventh against Jordan Montgomery as the Rangers stayed away from their high-leverage arms.

Next up is a four-game series against Tampa Bay, which boasts the best record in the league. While one of the league’s best home teams at 38-30, the Rangers are only 26-35 against teams above .500 and lost 2 of 3 games to the Rays in late July at Tropicana Field.

If the Rangers are to make the postseason, they will have to beat winning teams over the final 25 days. If they make the postseason, they will be facing only winning teams.

It’s now or never.

“I thinking moving forward, it’s a sprint now,” first baseman Jake Burger said. “It’s a playoff mentality. I think that’s the mentality we have to have, and it starts tomorrow against the Rays.”

_{Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com}