Rangers hammer Royals with old-school offensive formula: 'We applied pressure'
· Yahoo Sports
ARLINGTON — If the summer is to be something more than just a long, painful countdown to trading away the last vestiges of the 2023 World Series champions, the Rangers must follow Friday’s formula.
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In what became a 9-1 walkover of Kansas City, the Rangers played sharp defense, optimized an early run-scoring opportunity and then let guys with power slug. Even let newcomer Nicky Lopez, decidedly not a slugger, get in on the act.
It allowed the Rangers to reach early thresholds that automatically equal a win: They took an early lead and got to four runs. When they do that, they are 17-1, the best record in baseball for those parameters. You know, they just don’t do it very frequently.
On Friday, they did it all in the first inning.
“We applied pressure,” said rejuvenated leadoff man Joc Pederson, who started the four-run first-inning rally with a walk and later hit his fourth homer of the week. “We got them to make a couple of mistakes and took advantage of them. It was probably one of our better innings of the whole year.”
And he made it sound so simple.
(LM Otero/AP Photo/LM Otero)Though the Rangers later hit three homers, the four-run first was built on the elements of more fundamental baseball: Line drives, hustle and a heads-up baserunning play. Much of it came from Ezequiel Duran and Alejandro Osuna, the latter of whom was dropped from second in the lineup to seventh because Kansas City right-hander Stephen Kolek was actually harder on righties than lefties.
After Duran singled home a pair of runs with a two-out liner back up the middle, Osuna’s hustle to first on what appeared to be a routine grounder helped the Rangers extend the inning and score a third run. His 29.3 feet per second sprint to first, the fastest by a Ranger this season, may have forced Nick Loftin to hurry his throw, which was wide of first. Duran, who had gone to third on Evan Carter’s bloop double ahead of Osuna, scored. Carter went to third.
Then the Rangers put on an actual base-running play. And executed it. Osuna broke for second and stopped short to try to draw a throw to the bag while Carter broke for home. Future Hall of Fame catcher Salvador Perez threw the ball into center field. When Carter crossed the plate, the Rangers had a 4-0 lead. Bingo.
The Royals do the Rangers a couple of favors and Texas has a 4-0 lead💪
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“He’s a young kid who always plays the game hard,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He is the exact type of player that I love, as far as what a Ranger should look like, in my opinion. He’s a hard-nosed teammate who puts really good at-bats together, isn’t afraid to pass the baton and doesn’t try to do too much in big situations. He runs the bases the right way, asks questions, tries to learn and doesn't think he knows it already.”
Said Osuna of his role in the inning: “When I hit the ball, the only thing I could do good is hustle to first base and try to put a little pressure on them.”
In other words: Put inning and the situation ahead of personal performance. Call it small ball. Call it run optimization. Or call it simply old-school baseball. It’s a simple concept and one the Rangers have talked about at length this week as a potential addition to their offensive arsenal while they wait for Wyatt Langford and Corey Seager to hopefully rejoin the team. On that note, Langford will go on a rehab assignment. Seager might not be far behind him.
Maybe then the Rangers can try slugging first and asking questions later.
In the meantime, they’ve got to find ways to be more efficient with their run-scoring opportunities. It means team-first offense. On Friday, a guy with less than 300 MLB plate appearances understood the assignment.
“We can absolutely apply pressure,” Osuna said. “Today we came out with energy, and we want to play that way.”