NEW YORK -- There will not be postseason baseball in Arlington, but the Rangers will spend September in the heat of the AL playoff race.

It will be good for the club's long-term growth.

Growth can often be a painful and dreary process.

Though on Monday, the only thing dreary, was a three-hour pregame rain delay. Everything else went swimmingly for the Rangers in a 7-0 shutout win over the New York Yankees. Like this well: Led by Mike Minor's 7 1/3 scoreless innings, the Rangers dealt New York its first shutout loss in 220 games. The win, itself, was a significant benchmark. It was the 68th of the season, surpassing the 2018 total.

Monday started the final 24-game stretch of the season. All but four of those games -- this weekend at Baltimore -- are against top-quality opponents in the middle of the playoff race. And it's not how you start, but how you finish.

"This is a huge opportunity," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. "I'm very grateful for it. I've given the same message to our team. Every team is in the playoff race; it's a beautiful challenge going head-to-head with best teams who are playing the best right now. We can't back down. We want to play these teams when we are on our way to the World Series, too. These are the teams you are going to have to beat. I want them to experience that."

"We know where we are this season," said Minor, who worked with recently impressive rookie Jose Trevino for the first time this year. But if we are going to be good, we've got to be here next year, and in the future, we've got to be play these teams and beat these teams. It was brought to our attention."

To this point, the Rangers have not been up for the challenge. It's why they faded from the playoff race since late June. The Rangers are 24-41 this season against teams that currently hold winning records. The disparity has grown as the season has progressed. Since the All-Star break, the Rangers are 6-17. The last time they won a series against a team currently holding a winning record was back in mid-May when they took two of three from St. Louis.

"Our record may suffer for this stretch, but if we don't back down -- if we just attack these guys -- we will be better for it," Woodward said.

As for Monday, Woodward noted the Rangers, then still holding a winning record, began the second half of the season by winning back-to-back games against Houston. Then the bottom fell out.

"This was great, but it was only one game," Woodward said. "We have to do it every pitch, every game. That's what we have talked about."

The Rangers' remaining September opponents entered Monday with a composite .554 winning percentage. Consider this: A team with a .554-winning percentage for a full season ends up with 90 wins. The Rangers are essentially spending a month playing 90-win teams.

In addition to a trial by fire, it gives the Rangers an opportunity to get more accurate evaluations on the young players to whom they are giving long looks this season. Evaluating in September can often be fool's gold because of expanded rosters and because non-contending teams are often playing their own rookies.

Trevino's performance lately has caught the Rangers' attention. His fifth-inning, opposite-field home run Monday gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead. They extended it to 6-0 with four two-out runs in the eighth keyed by a Ronald Guzman single and Delino DeShields' three-run homer.

Over the last 10 days, Trevino has emerged as a more realistic option to catch a sizable number of games next year, which is necessary since Jeff Mathis will be 37 and struggles offensively. Trevino may be cut from the same cloth as Mathis -- a defense-first catcher -- but there is no denying his recent performance on both sides of the ball.

In his last five starts, the Rangers are 4-1 and pitchers have a composite 0.81 ERA. Those numbers may be more coincidental than causal, but they are eye-catching nonetheless. In the same stretch, he's 6 for 17 with a homer, three RBIs and four extra-base hits. He is rising to the challenge.

"I'm just trying to help the team win," Trevino said, perhaps unknowingly shaking his head at the reference to his rising performance. "I'm trying to prepare well and have some fun with it."

How much fun?

"A lot of fun," he said.

"It's like 'bring it on,'" Woodward said. "I love that he's not afraid of it. We are going to be prepared. We are going to bring our 'A' game. This kind of process is how good teams get great."

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant