Texas Rangers Must Correct This Problem Now for Offensive Turnaround

The Texas Rangers are at a point in the season where their record is who they are. They are a slightly below average team.

Entering Saturday’s game with the San Diego Padres, the Rangers were two games under .500. They also entered the game with a run differential of +25. That differential was better than three other teams in the American League with a positive run differential — the Boston Red Sox (+24), the Seattle Mariners (+20) and the Toronto Blue Jays (+10).

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Toronto leads its division. Seattle has the final AL wild card berth. The Red Sox are 2.5 games behind the Mariners. Texas is three games back of the Mariners.

The Rangers’ offense has been dissected like a lab experiment this season. Nothing is working — at least not all at the same time. Rarely have the bats clicked the way they did in 2023 when Texas won the World Series.

The core of this year’s lineup is similar to the core of that 2023 team. So what gives?

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Even with baseball’s third-worst overall slash line — .228/.296/.366 — the Rangers enter the final 10 days of the first half of the season in the race for the final wild card berth. Yes, that slash must get better.

But there’s a slash inside of that number that needs more improvement, and Friday’s 3-2, 10-inning loss to the San Diego Padres displayed that failure once again.

Texas left 10 runners on base and was 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. In a one-run game, that is a key difference in the outcome. Adding to the damage was that the Rangers stranded seven runners in scoring position with two outs. There was no clutch hitting to speak of when it mattered.

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Rangers manager Bruce Bochy can’t move the runners for them. But he knows it must get done.

“You’ve got to get a hit with runners in scoring position,” he told reporters after the game, including MLB.com. “We had the right guys up there at times. And it's got to be a case of somebody coming through to punch a run across.”

But this has been the trend all season for the Rangers. The team’s slash line with runners in scoring position is worse than its overall slash line. Texas is .220/.295/.350 with runners in scoring position, with 18 home runs and 222 RBI.

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The batting average is second-worse, ahead of only the Chicago White Sox (.206). The RBI is fifth worst in baseball.

Looking for something that must change and must change fast to save Texas’ season? Driving in runners in scoring position would be the place to start.

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