Marcus Semien & Corey Seager Both Go Deep For the 1st Time as Rangers Teammates
The Texas Rangers — and, no doubt, their fans — had been waiting for a day like Saturday.
They’d been waiting since last winter when the franchise invested $500 million in two players they hoped would lead a resurgence.
It hasn’t happened yet, but on Saturday for the first time this season, second baseman Marcus Semien and shortstop Corey Seager hit back-to-back home runs in a 9-7 win over the Minnesota Twins.
Seager, who signed a 10-year, $325 million deal as a free agent, has delivered 18 home runs already. But the 28-year-old is batting just .241 on the heels of back-to-back .300 seasons with the Dodgers.
Semien, the one-time Cal star, used a career season with the Toronto Blue Jays last year as a springboard to inking a seven-year, $175 million contract. He clubbed 45 home runs and drove in 102 runs last season when he finished third in the American League MVP voting.
But his production for the first two months this season was surprisingly lacking.
Marcus Semien steams toward a triple.
Photo by Jim Cowsert, USA Today
The 31-year-old batted just .193 without a home runs and just 11 RBIs through 43 games to start the season. His on-base percentage was .246, his slugging percentage .252.
Semien finally hit his first homer of the season on May 28, in his 44th game. By the same date a year ago, he had 13 home runs.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward says he wasn’t worried.
And on Saturday his confidence was rewarded. Semien, batting in the lead-off hole, was 2-for-4 with a triple and his 11th home run, scored twice and drive in four runs. Seager, at No. 2 in the lineup, was 2-for-3 with a homer. Including three walks, the two combined to reach base seven times.
“I’m not surprised at all,” Woodward told the Dallas Morning News. “I’ve just been watching their at-bats lately. When they’re hot, it’s pretty special.”
“We will definitely take that,” Semien said.
Semien tied the game with a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth before Seager went deep to put Texas in front.
“I just love when we hit home runs,” Semien said. “Everybody feeds off each other, and in my opinion, it’s the best way to score. We do other things. We can steal bases, we can create runs in other ways. But home runs are a gut punch sometimes. It was the first time we went back-to-back, so of course I was happy.”
The Twins pulled even again at 7-7 in the top of the eighth before Semien delivered a triple to push home the go-ahead run as the Rangers won for the second straight day after losing six of seven.
Semien certainly has ratcheted his output. Since hitting that first long ball back on May 28, he is batting .287 with 11 homers, 30 runs and 28 RBIs over 38 games. His on-base percentage has climbed 99 points to .345, his slugging percentage is up 289 points to .541 over that span.
Just as their manager knew this would come, Seager had supreme confidence in his double-play partner.
“That’s the player he is,” Seager said of Semien, who is hitting .333 over his past 42 at-bats. “That’s what you expect him to be like and it’s fun to be beside him.”
Cover photo of Marcus Semien by Peter Aiken, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo