{"id":20063,"date":"2025-05-12T02:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T02:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/20063\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T02:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T02:49:10","slug":"bret-boones-changing-ranger-batters-outlook-with-help-of-mlb-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/20063\/","title":{"rendered":"Bret Boone\u2019s changing Ranger batters\u2019 outlook with help of MLB legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT – Bret Boone<\/a> has stories. Oh, boy, does he have stories. You don\u2019t run a podcast for years without stories. <\/p>\n

Come for an interview, it\u2018s best to bring a snack. It can be a while. <\/p>\n

That said, he\u2019s saved most of the stories for those looking for interviews. At least for now. To the Rangers<\/a> hitters, the most important thing he said was that he\u2019d arrived in \u201clisten mode,\u201d and also acknowledged that wasn\u2019t really his forte. The second-most important thing he said: Watch the game and talk to one another; that will tell you more than Boone possibly can. <\/p>\n

Nobody is saying it\u2018s the magic spell. Or the cure to all the Rangers\u2019 problems. But you can\u2019t argue with the initial results. With a 6-1 win over Detroit Sunday<\/a>, the team with the best record in the AL, the Rangers, finished their first week with Boone with a series win. That would be the first series win they\u2019ve had since April. They finished the road trip 3-3, the first time they\u2019ve been at least even on a week-long road trip this year.<\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

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

Related:Texas Rangers leave Detroit with string of positives, highlighted by return of HR hitting<\/a><\/p>\n

They hit three more homers on Sunday, giving them eight for the weekend (from seven different players) and 10 for the week. On Sunday, Marcus Semien homered for the first time in three weeks; Josh Jung, playing against his brother Jace on Mother\u2018s Day<\/a>, earned ultimate family bragging rights by becoming the first sibling to hit a homer while playing his brother in more than 50 years. And Jonah Heim added a final one. <\/p>\n

But they also continued showing signs of better situational awareness, using other methods to score. On Saturday, Wyatt Langford scored three times and Adolis Garc\u00eda drove in two runs and neither had a hit. On Sunday, a Garc\u00eda steal made a soft two-out, two-strike fly ball by Evan Carter sting as much as his 111 mph homer the night before<\/a>. Carter later used his speed to beat out an infield single and scored on Jung\u2018s homer. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought this was great for the psyche of the club,\u201d manager Bruce Bochy said. \u201cWe played two really good days of baseball, got a series win. We had a good approach, good two-strike approach. You saw with Carter. Two strikes. Two outs. He put the ball in play. Good things happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get the sense that confidence is growing.\u201d <\/p>\n

The evidence was in freer swings when the situation allowed it and grinding out at-bats when there was a rally to start or a chance to optimize. The Rangers scored at least six runs in three games on the week. They\u2019d scored six or more four times in the first 35 games. <\/p>\n

There is no real change in teaching methods. Justin Viele and Seth Conner are still in charge of mechanics. At the moment, Boone is more about morale. And maybe some morals, too. As in the moral to a story. <\/p>\n

\u201cThrough all my years – good, bad or indifferent – it was about watching the game,\u201d Boone said. \u201cThe game will tell you what you need to do. Talk to like-minded hitters. Talk constantly. I see high-level astute hitters and teams and they are constantly talking to one another about what they are seeing. Let\u2018s talk with each other and come up with a plan so that by the time we leave the on-deck circle we have a plan to go execute. Because a lot of times, the actual plan doesn\u2019t come from the coach; it comes from teammates living the experience with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, the moral of this story? Bear with him. He\u2019s getting there. <\/p>\n

But, as is often the case with Boone, it involves Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez, a mentor during his most successful seasons in Seattle. Like Boone, Martinez was asked to help turn the Mariners\u2019 dreadful offense around last season. He\u2019s stuck around this year as the M\u2019s senior director of hitting strategy. Seattle began Sunday fourth in the AL in OPS. But we digress. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou brought up the Edgar thing,\u201d he said, gathering a second wind. \u201cHe was a huge influence on the second half of my career. He taught me to plan how to play 162 games and plan for every at bat. And the other thing: Play the game right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked Edgar in some weird situation why he hit the ball to the right side in some game we were winning like 10-2 in 2001. He said he wasn\u2019t trying to give himself up. He said he wouldn\u2019t do that. He was trying to get a hit. But if he didn\u2019t get a hit, he\u2019d still do his job. Maybe the guy on deck needed an RBI. And maybe he hits a sac fly and, all of a sudden, he believes he can do it again. That makes us better. Then other guys see it. And they believe it and do it. And the bench sees it. And they are saying \u2018if Edgar does it, I\u2019ll be damned if I\u2019m not gonna do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

We tried to stop him. But he was on a roll. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd next thing you know, we\u2019ve got an unbelievable chemistry. He said that early in 2001 and it stuck with me ever since that game. I tried to make sure I played the game right.\u201d <\/p>\n

As a story, it\u2018s great. As a coaching tool, however, if the message gets across.<\/p>\n

So, Josh Jung, what did you learn from your first week with the new guy?<\/p>\n

\u201cPlay the game. Watch the game. Listen to the game,\u201d Jung said before going 2 for 4 with the homer. \u201cTake what the game gives you. Those are the messages he\u2019s reiterating right now. We can get too wrapped up in all the other nonsense that comes with it sometimes. Just play the game. It\u2018s a great message.\u201d <\/p>\n

The players seem to be getting the message.<\/p>\n

Prior to series vs. Texas Rangers in Arlington, Colorado Rockies fire manager Bud Black<\/a>Texas Rangers leave Detroit with string of positives, highlighted by return of HR hitting<\/a><\/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":"DETROIT – Bret Boone has stories. Oh, boy, does he have stories. You don\u2019t run a podcast for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[4805,5,4,3245,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-20063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-texas-rangers","12":"tag-rangers","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-texas-rangers","16":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114492589022143067","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20063","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=20063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}