Three Takeaways as Texas Rangers Wrap Up Eventual Athletics Series

The Texas Rangers wrapped up their series with the Athletics on Thursday and it turned into an eventful series.

Apr 24, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Texas Rangers outfielder Leody Taveras (3) points to the sky after hitting a home run against the Athletics during the fourth inning at Sutter Health Park. | Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers visited the Athletics in Sacramento this week, their first visit to the minor league stadium that will be home to the wayward A’s for a while.

At some point, the Athletics will move to Las Vegas. Probably. It’s the Athletics and owner John Fisher. One never knows.

It’s the perfect one-week west coast road trip for the Rangers. After wrapping things up in Sacramento on Thursday, the Rangers head to San Francisco to face the Giants, manager Bruce Bochy’s former employer.

But, even before Rangers ace Jacob deGrom took to the mound for Thursday’s finale, it was an eventful three-game series with the Athletics

Here are three takeaways from the series.

That Line-up Shake-up

Now, this is a different lineup:

Rangers lineup for April 22, 2025 at the Athletics pic.twitter.com/kkWQPgXHDQ

— Texas Rangers PR (@TXRangersPR) April 22, 2025

That was Tuesday’s batting order. Josh Smith at leadoff with Wyatt Langford behind him. Corey Seager batting third and Marcus Semien batting fifth.

It seemed to have the requisite impact. Smith, Langford and Semien all homered, along with Jake Burger. The lineup had 10 hits. Each of the top five hitters in the order had at least one hit.

It was great — for one night at least.

Rocker Gets Rocked Twice

This was not a good week for Rangers rookie Kumar Rocker.

First, he took the loss against the Athletics on Wednesday. It laid bare one of the problems that he’s had so far this season. He’s been a solid and, at times, highly effective pitcher at home while he can’t seem to find his stuff on the road.

As MLB.com pointed out, Rocker has given up four earned runs in 12 innings in two home starts. But, in three starts on the road he’s allowed 14 earned runs in eight innings and three starts.

Those are the sorts of things that can be smoothed out with more experience. But that will have to wait. Because, well, things got worse on Thursday.

Rangers transactions for Thursday:

-RHP Kumar Rocker placed on 15-day Injured List (right shoulder impingement).
-RHP Gerson Garabito recalled from Triple-A Round Rock.

— Texas Rangers PR (@TXRangersPR) April 25, 2025

Rocker will be on the shelf for a bit. Then, likely a rehab stint in the minor leagues.

The Seager Situation

Corey Seager’s hamstring injury doesn’t sound major. Based on the beat reporting from The Dallas Morning News, the Rangers seem hopeful that the All-Star will only need the 10 days on the injured list to recover.

This is Seager’s second hamstring injury in the last three years. The other happened during the 2023 season, which social media users were quick to point out was the year the Rangers won the World Series. So, good omen?

That also brought out the “Seager should just DH” crowd. Well, I’m almost certain both hamstring injuries happened while he was running the bases.

So how is putting him at DH going to keep him from pulling his hamstring?

In the meantime, the Rangers will need power from someone else. Perhaps Langford, who has been on fire since he returned from the injured list. Better would be Josh Jung, whose power numbers have tailed off a bit since his hot start in his return from the injured list.