SURPRISE, Ariz. — Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Jung isn’t too pressed about the slim injury-induced runway he has to prepare for opening day. He figured that because he’d done it before, he could do it again.
But a little results-based validation doesn’t hurt.
Jung, who missed the bulk of camp with an adductor strain, is 4 for 5 with a pair of extra-base hits in the two Cactus League games he’s played since his return from the injury. He hit his first spring home run — a 417-foot solo shot off Kansas City Royals right-hander Michael Wacha — in Wednesday’s 12-3 win as part of a three-hit night.
“The body has felt good, and that’s all that really matters,” Jung said Thursday morning after he went 2 for 4 with a double in an additional minor league backfields game. “Once the leg felt good, I knew it was going to be fine, but it was getting to the point where it felt normal, I guess.”
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The 28-year-old has slashed .545/.545/1.091 in five exhibitions this spring. He’s registered a 95.7 mph average exit velocity — more than six miles per hour faster than last regular season — on 10 batted balls despite the three-week gap in competition.
“His legs are underneath him,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said Wednesday night. “Obviously, that was the biggest step, because that was kind of what hurt him the most, was the swing. The running was okay, the fielding, but the frustrating part for him was the swing.”
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