Ezequiel Duran Makes Start at First Base For Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers rookie Ezequiel Duran made his first professional start at first base on Wednesday night and it turned out to be relatively uneventful.
That’s a great debut as far as the Rangers are concerned.
Duran didn’t make an error in the Rangers’ 6-3 victory against the Los Angeles Angels but he ended a couple of innings by catching pop-ups in foul territory, plays that were critical in keeping the Angels from blowing open the game.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy has recently said he needed to give Nathaniel Lowe a day off. Entering Wednesday’s game, Lowe and second baseman Marcus Semien were the only Rangers to start every game.
Bochy finally made good on it, along with his desire to give Duran a test drive, even though he’s never played first base in pro baseball.
“It’s not like he has not had a ground ball there, he knew this was coming up,” Bochy said. “[He’s worked] with [fielding coordinator] Corey Ragsdale, knew this was the plan. He’ll be fine, he’s a shortstop, so he should be fine there.”
Duran had already played five positions for the Rangers, with the bulk of those coming at shortstop while Corey Seager was out for a month with a hamstring injury.
Duran had logged a few minor league games at shortstop before filling in for Seager, but not in the majors. He’s also played left field, second base, third base, and right field.
He spent Spring Training working on being a super-utility player, and the work paid off.
His biggest plays came at the end of the third and fourth innings, both in situations when the Angels had a chance to blow a 1-0 lead wide open.
Duran caught Luis Rengifo's pop-up in foul territory down the first-base line in the third and Anthony Rendon's pop-up by the Rangers dugout in the fourth.
He also made a couple of nice pick plays. One was on a throw from third baseman Josh Jung in the fifth and another from shortstop Corey Seager in the seventh.
The latter drew Lowe's approval from the dugout.
Lowe was available in case things went south, Bochy said before the game. But he wasn’t expecting that to happen. Duran has so far risen to every challenge the team has presented him.
Duran drew the start on Wednesday in part because of the match-up with Angels left-hander Reid Detmers. Duran was batting .333 against left-handers going into the game. He went 0-for-4.
But his work with a new glove Wednesday mattered much more than his offense.
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