Takeaways: Marcus Semien's Scintillating Rangers Summer
The Baltimore Orioles swept the Texas Rangers in a three-game series that ended on Wednesday. Here are three takeaways from the series.
Marcus Semien’s Scintillating Summer
For most of the first two months of the season, the question was what was wrong with Marcus Semien?
That seems like forever ago.
Entering Wednesday’s game with Baltimore, Semien was one of the best hitters for the Rangers. Here are some numbers that back it up, in case the eye test doesn’t work for you:
Semien was hitting .330/.374/.580/.954 with eight home runs and 17 RBI in 27 games since June 5 to push his batting average from .191 to a season-high .241. Among American League qualifiers in that span, Semien ranked like this — runs (tied for eighth), batting average (eighth) and slugging percentage (ninth).
Expand the sample size further and Semien hit .307/.361/.540/.901 in his last 36 games starting May 27, tying him for the third-highest fWAR in the AL in that span.
He now leads the Rangers and is in the top six in the AL in stolen bases with 14. His seven home runs in June tied for the club lead and was in the top 10 in the AL. He’s hit 10 home runs in the last 35 games.
Semien hit his first home run in Oakland on May 28. It was a grand slam. Since then, his hitting has been on a consistent uptick.
You can draw your own conclusion about how much that home run mattered. But the Rangers now have the hitter they thought they were getting when they signed him last December.
By the way, Semien went 0-for-4 in Wednesday night's 2-1 loss and his batting average dropped to .238. I mean, he’s not perfect.
One-Run Games are Sign of Growth
The Rangers lost all three games of the Baltimore series by a run and lost two of them in the 10th inning.
With the loss on Wednesday, the Rangers were 4-17 in one-run games. What can the Rangers do to dislodge themselves from this rut?
“Win. It’s pretty simple,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “It’s a lot of things that we need to do better. They’re fighting and grinding. They’re really frustrated.”
For more than a month, the Rangers have felt a bit ahead of schedule based on how they’ve played. But with this road trip — and the Rangers finished 3-6 in games at Kansas City, the New York Mets and Baltimore — they’ve come back to earth just a bit. MLB.com predicted the Rangers could be in a playoff spot by the end of July. This stretch of baseball won’t cut it.
ESPN wrote that the Rangers could be a "buyer" at the trade deadline. This stretch may cool them off from those designs, even if the report clearly noted the Rangers’ desires were tempered by the reality that they’re still building and don’t want to rent players.
That is the reality after this road trip. The Rangers are still building and are still trying to grow into a more consistent team.
Learning how to win games late, one-run games, now feels like the next step.
Boy, that Bullpen?
The Texas bullpen has been a pleasant surprise this season. There are always bumps in the road when it comes to your bullpen. But what happened in Baltimore the first two games felt like a sinkhole.
On Monday, the bullpen threw well until it got to Joe Barlow in the ninth, where he blew a save. Then, in the 10th, Matt Moore was the hard-luck reliever that had to take the loss.
Tuesday was worse. Dennis Santana was tagged for three runs. Barlow blew another save. Moore took the loss again in the 10th. The Rangers offense did more than one could expect to put them in position to win and the bullpen couldn’t hold on multiple times.
On Wednesday, Brock Burke and Jose Leclerc threw three innings of scoreless baseball. Leclerc in particular pitched well, going two innings.
The Rangers have the arms to recover from this. Hopefully the bullpen uses the off-day on Thursday and this 10-game homestand leading into the All-Star Break to reset itself.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
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