The Texas Rangers were buried in their worst stretch of the season, losing 12 of 15 games while their offense stagnated, only scoring more than four runs once, and their record dropped to 24-29. However, after finishing their most recent road trip with a win over the Minnesota Twins, the Rangers swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in a two-game series to improve their record to 27-29 and have won three games in a row, with their offense scoring 16 runs during the streak.
“We went through that little rough patch so it’s good to get our foot in the door again and be able to go back to the way we should be playing ball and it’s now we’re back to having fun and that’s the biggest thing is just being able to enjoy all these games with the team and with these guys,” pitcher Dane Dunning. Dunning pitched well in his return from a serious sinus infection suffered in Minnesota allowing only three hits in five innings of work with six strikeouts and four walks in the Rangers’ 6-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday. The Rangers have also had key players return from injury with Nathan Eovaldi making a start on Tuesday against the Diamondbacks and Wyatt Langford returning from the 10-day injured list.
Josh Jung is making progress on his return and manager Bruce Bochy said his swing looked good but qualified he wasn’t swinging a regulation bat yet and is still two to three weeks from starting rehab but was encouraged by how he’s looked. The Rangers suffered more bad news on the injury front with rookie Evan Carter heading to the 10-day injury list with a lumbar sprain retroactive to May 27. Carter had struggled this season batting .188 with five home runs and 15 RBIs and will be out of commission until at least June 6.
The Rangers are no strangers to adversity as last season’s title run proved and Bochy knows their capable of turning things around. “This is what we have to do to get back to where we need to be and it was a tough stretch,” said Bochy, “last year we had our tough stretches, our share of them and we did a great job of being resilient bouncing back through times like this.” Marcus Semien was held out of Wednesday’s game ending his streak of 349 consecutive games played to get rest. Bochy said he was struggling with neck soreness after his collision with Adolis Garcia which occurred when the Rangers played the Angels on May 18.
However, the all-star second baseman is expected to play against the Miami Marlins on Friday in the Rangers’ upcoming series. Corey Seager has started to find his groove after a slow start to the season and became the fifth player in Rangers history to hit eight home runs in eight games when he homered on Wednesday. In his last 15 games, Seager is batting .315 with nine home runs, 14 RBIs, and more walks (13) than strikeouts (11). Bochy said he was running out of things to say about the superstar shortstop.
