MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The Target Field video board is a treasure trove of bits and fun facts. It lists a unique detail \u2014 some of which are informative, others more trivial \u2014 under each batter\u2019s name when they are at the plate. <\/p>\n
For Evan Carter, the Texas Rangers<\/a>\u2019 center fielder, it denoted that he was given the nickname \u201cFull Count Carter\u201d soon after his big league promotion two seasons ago. <\/p>\n They forgot one. <\/p>\n The Little Savior is up to his old tricks once again after a year of battles. <\/p>\n Rangers<\/p>\n Right on time. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s kind of that spark plug for us in my opinion,\u201d shortstop Josh Smith said. \u201cThese past two series, I don\u2019t think we do what we do without him.\u201d<\/p>\n Carter has been the anchor and jolt of a once-dismal offense that has surged into form this last week. He played a pivotal role again in the Rangers\u2019 16-3 series-clinching win against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday that pulled Texas back to within five games of the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West. <\/p>\n The win marked the first time this season that the Rangers have scored 43 runs in a five-game span and it was the first time they\u2019ve done so since their championship season. They hadn\u2019t scored 16 runs in a single game since that season prior to this week but did so twice during their Minnesota romp<\/a>. Their 34 runs in the series against the Twins were the second-most they\u2019ve scored in any three-game span in the last decade.<\/p>\n The five-game run, which helped the Rangers finish a season-long nine-game road trip with a 4-5 record, has lifted them from baseball\u2019s statistical cellar. They began play last Friday against the Washington Nationals with a .642 teamwide OPS and the second-fewest runs scored in baseball. They\u2019ll return home this weekend with a .650 OPS and the fifth-fewest runs scored in baseball. <\/p>\n Small steps, no doubt, but Carter\u2019s return may materialize into a seismic one and it\u2019s no coincidence that the Rangers\u2019 recent surge has coincided with his own. <\/p>\n It\u2019s kind of what he does. <\/p>\n Carter, then a 21-year-old rookie, slashed .306\/.413\/.645 in his first month of big league baseball to help lift a teetering Texas team into the postseason. Then he went on to set a number of baseball records when he yielded a .917 OPS during the Rangers\u2019 World Series run that fall. <\/p>\n \u201cHe probably thought it was the easiest game in the world,\u201d Smith said with a laugh. <\/p>\n It was until it wasn\u2019t. Carter missed the balance of last season with a lower-back injury<\/a> and started this one at Triple-A Round Rock<\/a> to ramp back up after the long layoff. He rejoined the Rangers in May<\/a>, played for a week and was sidelined again with a right quad strain<\/a>. <\/p>\n He was activated off of the injured list June 3<\/a> and has hit 11 for 25 with five extra base hits in eight games since. He went 7 for 12 with two home runs against the Twins and made a handful of acrobatic catches in center field. He\u2019s the only hitter leaguewide this season who\u2019s reached base three-plus times with an extra base hit in four consecutive games. His .875 OPS, albeit in a small sample size, is the best of any Texas hitter. <\/p>\n Carter went 2 for 4 in Thursday\u2019s win with a 403-foot home run vs. right-hander Bailey Ober in the fifth inning and a full-count walk vs. left-hander Joey Wentz in the seventh. His home run was one of the season-high six that the Rangers hit. Smith (first inning), first baseman Jake Burger (second inning), left fielder Wyatt Langford (second inning) right fielder Adolis Garc\u00eda (eighth inning) and pinch hitter Sam Haggerty (ninth inning) each went yard and combined with Carter to drive in 15 of the Rangers\u2019 16 runs. <\/p>\n Langford and Carter, the Rangers\u2019 top-ranked and second-ranked prospects prior to last season, had never hit home runs in the same game before this week. They did so twice in three games against the Twins.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say he\u2019s been a really big part of the spark that\u2019s happened the last couple of days,\u201d said Langford, who hit a three-run home run vs. Ober as part of a five-run second inning<\/a>. \u201cWe all know how good he is, it was just a matter of him figuring it out himself and getting fully healthy to where he feels he can go out there and play the way he can play.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rangers have hit 11 home runs over their past four games. It\u2019s tied for the most that they\u2019ve hit in any singular four-game span this season and it\u2019s been a byproduct of the big swings that were promised when this lineup was assembled this winter. <\/p>\n Texas totaled 33 batted balls that carried an exit velocity of 100 mph or greater in their two wins against the Twins this week. Their 17 triple-digit whacks in Tuesday\u2019s win were a season high and the second-most in a single game leaguewide this year. Their 16 in Thursday\u2019s win were tied for the third most. They are now the only team in baseball this season with multiple games of 16 or more balls batted at 100-plus mph. Only four have done it once. <\/p>\n \u201cI think you see some guys that\u2019re getting their timing and making consistent hard contact,\u201d Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the biggest thing that\u2019s been going on with us.\u201d<\/p>\n Carter has been squarely involved. He hit seven balls 100 mph or harder in the Rangers\u2019 series wins against the Twins and Nationals and six landed for base hits. He admitted Tuesday night, after a three-hit game against Minnesota, that he couldn\u2019t identified what\u2019s been different about this heater vs. previous droughts. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to sit there and think \u2018what\u2019s your future going to look like?\u2019 Carter said. \u201dI don\u2019t know. Obviously the way things started in Triple-A this year sucked. I missed games in Triple-A, I wasn\u2019t even playing that much there for health reasons, and I wasn\u2019t performing. It\u2019s kind of like, what\u2019s your future in baseball look like? It\u2019s easy to think like that when you get punched in the face for over a year straight.”<\/p>\n He\u2019s now punched back. <\/p>\n The Rangers, no doubt, needed a punch. <\/p>\n Rangers\u2019 rotation setup ahead of White Sox series could set up bullpen game vs. Chicago<\/a>Rangers pitcher Cody Bradford checks off another significant box in rehab process<\/a><\/p>\n Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n