OAKLAND, Calif. _ No matter what the Texas Rangers were going to do Sunday afternoon at Oakland Coliseum, they were going to finish the road portion of their 162-game schedule with a dismal record away from home.
The best they could hope for was to match last season's record, also dismal at 33-48, and they did behind five home runs and 12 strikeouts by Lance Lynn in an 8-3 victory over the Oakland A's in road game No. 81.
By the way, the 2017 Rangers won only 37 road games.
For those who have been paying attention, the Rangers have had three straight seasons out of the playoffs and two in a row when they couldn't even sniff October in September.
Finding a solution for the road woes is on manager Chris Woodward's to-do list. Maybe there's a number, which seems to be the answer to all baseball problems these days, but there's likely more to it.
Players are human after all.
"We need to play better on the road. There's no question," Woodward said. "I don't feel like we had fear on the road. We just didn't execute as good on the road for some reason. I want to dig into some deeper reasons why. I want to see if there's anything that stands out."
The Rangers finished their final road trip of the season on a high note, snapping a seven-game losing streak
Shin-Soo Choo hit the first pitch of the game 461 feet, Willie Calhoun and Elvis Andrus also homered in the first, and Lynn allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings.
"When you have a young team, you have to play like that against playoff-caliber teams," Lynn said. "We got slapped around the whole road trip until today, so it was a good bounce back."
Calhoun homered again in the third, pushing his season total to 20, and Nomar Mazara connected in the fifth. Choo's homer was his career-high 23rd.
The home/road splits might tell part of the story. As expected the Rangers hit better at Globe Life Park than on the road, and the pitchers are better away from their hitter-friendly home.
"I hit it far sometimes," Choo said. "It surprised me, too. I hit good, but I wasn't expecting the ball to go that far, especially to center field and the upper deck."
But the batters were significantly worse on the road than they should have been and the pitchers were only marginally better than in Arlington.
Left-hander Mike Minor was one of the exceptions. He finished the season with a 2.99 road ERA and will take a 4.22 home ERA into his final start of the season Thursday.
Andrus has done more damage on the road, where he hit eight of his 12 home runs and has a slightly higher road batting average (.271 to .270) with six home games remaining.
"I don't know if us not playing on the road is a collective thing," Woodward said. "We're so comfortable hitting at all ballpark, and when we get out of there it's the Coors Field thing. I don't know if that's the case. Our pitchers should be more comfortable on the road, honestly."
Hunter Pence, who looks more and more unlikely to play again this season, has a .297 average on the road and at home, but a .635 slugging percentage on the road as opposed to .464 at home.
Fellow All-Star Joey Gallo, also unlikely to play again this season, has a dramatic difference between his road (.211/.353/.492) and home (.301/.429/.717) splits.
He endured a long road hitless drought early in the season, and the effects of a slow start might have lingered.
"You have to have a short memory," Andrus said. "The last thing you want to do is carry a game to the next game. At home we did a really good job of having a short memory and being able to turn the page quickly. Not playing well early in the year hurt us as a team, and we were not able to turn the page on the road."
Among other potential factors is experience.
Young teams can have problems on the road as they visit new cities and ballparks for the first time. They don't have the depth of knowledge about opposing pitchers, a disadvantage that works against them at home, too.
Veterans _ like Minor, Andrus and Pence _ are more comfortable away from home.
Whatever the issue turns out to be, and the Rangers recognize that it must be remedied.
"We knew it was going to be a new clubhouse this year, so I think it takes some time for everybody to feel comfortable," Andrus said. "We didn't perform well on the road, and it's something to look to see what can we improved and be better for next year."
