The final week of the regular season will almost certainly come and go with little stakes for the Texas Rangers, starting with Tuesday's opener to their three-game series against the Minnesota Twins in Arlington, Texas.

But it didn't have to be this way. One week ago, the Rangers were riding high after winning eight of their first 11 games in September to work their way back into the American League wild-card race. They pulled within two games of Houston for the final spot in the postseason.

Since then, the Rangers (79-77) have been in freefall. They head into Tuesday's clash riding a season-high, seven-game losing streak. Texas' rotation, which has been on top of MLB in ERA for most of the year, has allowed more earned runs (22) than its offense has scored (19) during the ongoing swoon.

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