{"id":72265,"date":"2025-06-01T23:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T23:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/72265\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T23:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T23:47:10","slug":"the-texas-rangers-excelled-at-this-small-thing-to-create-offense-vs-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/72265\/","title":{"rendered":"The Texas Rangers excelled at this small thing to create offense vs. Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 The issue that have plagued the Texas Rangers<\/a>\u2019 offense for the last two-plus months appear gigantic. The remedies do not necessarily need to be. <\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s series-clinching 8-1 win vs. the St. Louis Cardinals at Globe Life Field<\/a> is proof. The Rangers emphasized small ball and productive outs to gain an advantage vs. the Cardinals. <\/p>\n

Related:Texas Rangers\u2019 series-clinching win over Cardinals is how they\u2019re all supposed to look<\/a><\/p>\n

The result may be best reflected in the swing-and-miss numbers. In Saturday\u2019s shutout loss, in which the Rangers totaled just four hits, they whiffed on 26 pitches (their third-most in a game this season.) In Sunday\u2019s win, with a focus on contact and putting the ball in play, they whiffed on just seven (their third-fewest in a game this season.)<\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe want to be a complete offense,\u201d said second baseman Marcus Semien<\/a>, who reached base four times. \u201cWe have guys who can run, we have guys who can bunt. We always talk about guys with power, but it doesn\u2019t seem like the ball is carrying as much in this ballpark, so we\u2019ve got to figure out ways to score.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like, say, this:<\/p>\n

Super utility man Josh Smith led the bottom of the first inning off with a double into right field vs. Cardinals right-hander Erick Fedde. Center fielder Wyatt Langford<\/a> followed with a full-count walk. The two then pulled off a double steal to give the Rangers two runners in scoring position for the heart of the order. Third baseman Josh Jung was called out on a questionable strike three call and left fielder Alejandro Osuna popped out to end the inning and strand both Smith and Langford on base. Right idea, wrong execution. Semien, with two outs in the second inning, didn\u2019t bite on two pitches off the plate from Fedde but pulled a cutter in the zone into left field for a single. He stole second base, which was somewhat nullified by a Sam Haggerty walk in the next at bat, and scored on Smith\u2019s second double of the game to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. The Rangers loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the seventh inning courtesy of a Jonah Heim single, a Semien walk and a Haggerty single. They scored their third run of the game via a productive out. Langford hit a 105.6 mph flyout into center field to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead. It was the Rangers\u2019 15th sacrifice fly of the season, which is exactly league average. Heim recorded their 16th in the next inning to drive in Osuna from third base to give the Rangers a 6-1 lead. Semien worked a one-out walk in the eighth inning and was moved to second base by a well-placed sacrifice bunt from Haggerty. It was just the Rangers\u2019 third sacrifice bunt of the season, which ranks bottom five in baseball, but it pushed Semien into scoring position and scored designated hitter Jake Burger from third base to make it a 7-1 game. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe little things play such a big part,\u201d Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. \u201cNot in one game, but throughout the season to help us win ballgames. That\u2019s executing, and they did a nice job of it.\u201d<\/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":"ARLINGTON \u2014 The issue that have plagued the Texas Rangers\u2019 offense for the last two-plus months appear gigantic.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,3417,3321,10546,400,395,386,4,3245,149,185,1567,69,3240,385],"class_list":{"0":"post-72265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brief","10":"tag-bruce-bochy","11":"tag-globe-life-field","12":"tag-jake-burger","13":"tag-josh-jung","14":"tag-marcus-semien","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-mlb-texas-rangers","17":"tag-rangers","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-texas-rangers","21":"tag-texasrangers","22":"tag-wyatt-langford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114610781819118090","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72265","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=72265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}