{"id":50497,"date":"2025-05-24T06:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T06:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/50497\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T06:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T06:12:15","slug":"as-marcus-semien-adolis-garcia-flounder-rangers-offense-approaches-historic-futility-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/50497\/","title":{"rendered":"As Marcus Semien, Adolis Garc\u00eda flounder, Rangers\u2019 offense approaches historic futility"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Rangers manager Bruce Bochy<\/a> huddled underneath an overhead space heater in Rate Field\u2019s dugout Friday afternoon to shelter himself from the Lake Michigan cold with just a week and change until the calendar turns to a certified summer month. <\/p>\n

Yeah, it\u2019s official, things have become uncomfortable. <\/p>\n

The Rangers<\/a>, whose state of comfort feels about as far away as their World Series win now does, have officially embraced it. So much so that Friday, after weeks of tweaks and twists, the Rangers\u2019 offensive futility drove two of the their highest profile hitters to rock bottom.<\/p>\n

Of the batting order, we mean, but boy, total bedrock doesn\u2019t appear far out of reach either.<\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

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

Related:Rangers, Bruce Bochy have taken steps and made changes. At some point, it\u2019s on the hitters<\/a><\/p>\n

Bochy, in another drastic attempt to inject life into a lifeless offense, hit right fielder Adolis Garc\u00eda<\/a> and second baseman Marcus Semien<\/a> back-to-back in the eight and nine holes of the Rangers\u2019 lineup in Friday\u2019s series opener vs. the Chicago White Sox. The two combined to go 0 for 6 in a 4-1 loss that dropped the Rangers to 25-27. They totaled just three hits against a last-place team. They\u2019ve lost five consecutive games and haven\u2019t scored more than three times in any of them. <\/p>\n

Related:Rangers\u2019 Marcus Semien is painfully aware of his struggles. How will he fix them?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou never like to move two of your star players that led you to a world championship,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cSometimes things are tweaked \u2014 not just for the club \u2014 but maybe also for them. I\u2019m a big believer in mixing it up.”<\/p>\n

Consider things shaken and stirred, too, after 52 games of large scale offensive inefficacy. Friday\u2019s lineup is a last-ditch effort \u2014 one that will attempt to balance the team\u2019s immediate offensive needs and the commitment to its tenured veterans \u2014 to jump start Garc\u00eda and Semien. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying their tails off to get on track,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cMaybe backing them off, putting them at the back end, takes a little pressure off until they get locked in at the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The duo has been anything but to this point. Semien\u2019s .505 OPS is the third-worst among qualified hitters leaguewide and his four extra base hits are the fewest of any Texas batter that\u2019s taken at least 70 at bats this season. He\u2019s hit just one \u2014 a home run against the Detroit Tigers on May 11 \u2014 this month. Garc\u00eda, who dropped to seventh in the batting order<\/a> Thursday against the New York Yankees, slashed .154\/.211\/.269 in his last 15 games prior to Friday\u2019s and owns a .204\/.239\/.306 line in his last 30 games. <\/p>\n

Texas hitting coach Justin Viele acknowledged that both have made strides despite the counting numbers. Garc\u00eda has improved his plate discipline in recent weeks after it was \u201cwild\u201d at the beginning of the year. Semien has been \u201cin his at bats,\u201d as Viele described it, and hit four balls 90-plus mph in Thursday\u2019s loss against the New York Yankees. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not nothing, to be fair, and could be legitimate evidence that both are closer to the end of their season-long slumps than the middle. The Rangers though, now fourth place in the AL West, can no longer afford either time at critical spots in the order to decipher which peripherals are real and which aren\u2019t. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow long? I can\u2019t tell you,\u201d Bochy said of the new lineup\u2019s potential lifespan. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying things out to see if we can get that consistency as far as getting runs on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consistency, to be frank, isn\u2019t the problem. It\u2019s the makeup and direction of that consistency that\u2019s led to demotions, lineup jumbles and a firing<\/a>. The numbers are poor (the Rangers began play Friday with the fourth-fewest runs scored and the fourth-lowest OPS in baseball) and well-reported. The stark differences between the offense and pitching staff, which owns a 3.26 ERA that ranks second-best in the American League, become glaringly worse with each blown quality start or quality series. <\/p>\n

But, by now, you know that. So, in an effort to match Bochy and shake things up as he\u2019s become one to do, here\u2019s some fresh and frightening precedent to contextualize the Rangers\u2019 inabilities: There have been 55 teams in the Wild Card era (since 1995) that\u2019ve posted a teamwide 3.26 ERA or better through the first 51 games of their season. Only two of those teams lost more games during that span than the Rangers did and only two scored fewer total runs than the Rangers did.<\/p>\n

Things have crept into the territory of not-so-good history. The Rangers, in turn, have decided to throw history out the window with the way in which they\u2019ve handled the 2023 ALCS MVP and their ironman role model of a leader. <\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda has not hit this low in the order since May 11, 2021 against the San Francisco Giants. Semien had never hit lower than fifth for the Rangers and hadn\u2019t batted ninth prior to Friday since Aug. 12, 2017 with the Oakland Athletics. The three-time All-Star, whose position atop the order was an unquestioned guarantee as recently as last month, has now ceded his leadoff spot<\/a> to former non-roster invitee Sam Haggerty. Haggerty, in just 11 games with the Rangers, has already equaled Semien\u2019s extra base hit total. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys know where they\u2019re hitting,\u201d Viele said. \u201cThey know when it\u2019s posted. They see it. Other people see it. You\u2019re kind of curious what other people think. That\u2019s just natural, but, you should never view yourself as where you\u2019re hitting. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair to yourself and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s good for your confidence.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bochy, for the record, feels the same way. He also believes that Garc\u00eda, Semien and whomever else the Rangers bat in their bottom third can make a sizable impact on the scoreboard. In Friday\u2019s loss, in large part due to the total lack of attack vs. White Sox starter Sean Burke, neither Garc\u00eda nor Semien took an at bat with a runner on base. The Rangers don\u2019t expect that to be a constant. <\/p>\n

\u201cWherever you\u2019re hitting in this order is such a big spot,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to come up with men on base if everybody is doing their thing. When we were successful, the eight, nine hole hitters got on. [Former Rangers center fielder Leody Taveras] was one of the best hitters in the league and he was hitting ninth [during the 2023 season]. That\u2019s what made us go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, but, that\u2019s history. <\/p>\n

The Rangers proved Friday that they\u2019re willing to look past it, too, in an effort to avoid a worse future. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing comfortable about that. <\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Texas Rangers\u2019 Kumar Rocker makes first rehab start with Double-A Frisco RoughRiders<\/a><\/p>\n

The right-handed pitcher threw three scoreless innings Friday against the Midland RockHounds.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Jake Burger returns to first MLB home, announces giveaway through his family\u2019s foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rangers\u2019 first baseman is giving away a day at the ballpark and a meet-and-greet if his foundation raises $3,500 by Thursday.<\/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":"CHICAGO \u2014 Rangers manager Bruce Bochy huddled underneath an overhead space heater in Rate Field\u2019s dugout Friday afternoon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[3418,4805,5,3321,386,4,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-50497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-adolis-garcia","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-bruce-bochy","12":"tag-marcus-semien","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-rangers","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-texas-rangers","18":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114561335236217158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50497","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=50497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}