{"id":155499,"date":"2025-07-06T06:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T06:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/155499\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T06:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T06:40:11","slug":"kyle-higashiokas-all-time-performance-among-rangers-catchers-powers-texas-win-vs-padres-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/155499\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Higashioka\u2019s all-time performance among Rangers catchers powers Texas\u2019 win vs. Padres"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO \u2014 Kyle Higashioka received an ovation from San Diego Padres fans in his first game back at Petco Park since he signed with the Texas Rangers<\/a> this past winter. <\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t as thrilled to see him in his second game back. <\/p>\n

Higashioka had a season-high three hits, drove in five runs for the second time this year and recorded his third career stolen base in a 7-4 win against the Padres Saturday night. He\u2019s the first player in Texas history to total five RBIs and a stolen base in a single game as a catcher. <\/p>\n

He gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead in the third inning with a two-run home run off of a Stephen Kolek slider, singled in a run during a fourth-inning rally, drove in his fourth run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth and carded his fifth on a single in the eighth inning. It was his second game with five RBIs this season; he\u2019s the only Rangers hitter to reach that number in a single game this year. <\/p>\n

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Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had some really good games here for [the Padres] and I\u2019m sure he wanted to play well here,\u201d Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, also a former San Diego catcher, said. \u201cI see the bat just getting better with him. I was really, really happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old played for the Padres last year after his first seven big league seasons were spent with the New York Yankees. He hit a career-high 17 home runs last season in San Diego before he signed a two-year, $13.5 million deal with the Rangers this winter to split catcher duties with incumbent starter Jonah Heim. <\/p>\n

He slashed .184\/.279\/.211 in the months of May and June and hit just .190 against fastballs \u2014 a pitch that he is a career .248 hitter against \u2014 during that span. He\u2019s 4 for 7 with two extra base hits in two July games and carded three of his hits (and Saturday\u2019s sacrifice fly) on fastball variants. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest,\u201d Higashioka said, \u201ceverything revolves around hitting the fastball. I think if you can get to the fastball easily and not cheat, then everything else you can handle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higashioka drove in five of the Rangers\u2019 seven runs. The other two came courtesy of a Josh Smith leadoff home run in the first inning vs. San Diego right-hander Stephen Kolek and the other came via a Jonah Heim double in the fourth inning. <\/p>\n

Outfielder Wyatt Langford, in his first game back off of the injured list<\/a>, worked a two-out walk in the fourth inning. He fell behind 0-2 against Kolek but fouled a pitch off and passed on four balls to begin a rally. Heim, who entered Saturday with a .172\/.192\/.273 in his previous 30 games, ended an eight-pitch at bat with a double down the right field line that scored Langford from first base to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead. <\/p>\n

Higashioka drove a Kolek fastball 103.2 mph into left field two at bats later to score Heim to give the Rangers a 5-2 lead. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s about, getting those quality at bats,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cJust grinding, grinding, using the whole field. We did a good job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Has this weakness of the Texas Rangers offense been the biggest detractor of success? <\/a><\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 offense has not been good all year, but its numbers with men in scoring position are still jarring.<\/p>\n

\"Law<\/a>Troy Aikman, Texas sports teams react to deadly flood at Guadalupe River<\/a><\/p>\n

FC Dallas head coach Eric Quill also addressed the flooding after a game on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO \u2014 Kyle Higashioka received an ovation from San Diego Padres fans in his first game back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,3417,3321,7530,4,43,149,137,18,4339,4338,185,69,385],"class_list":{"0":"post-155499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brief","10":"tag-bruce-bochy","11":"tag-jonah-heim","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-padres","14":"tag-rangers","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-padres","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-sandiegopadres","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-texas-rangers","21":"tag-wyatt-langford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114804924443404154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}