Elvis Andrus wasn't expecting to be sitting the bench when he arrived at Globe Life Park on Wednesday afternoon, but when he saw Ron Washington's linup card he was getting his third day off in a week, including Monday's team off-day.
Washington said prior to Wednesday's game that Andrus looked sluggish on Tuesday night, when he went 0-for-5 and also made a bonehead play in the field.
"It could be the day off that made him sluggish," Washington told reporters prior to the game. "I just felt he needed a day. He needed a day."
Andrus was used as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning for Rougned Odor and replaced Luis Sardinas at shortstop as Sardinas moved to second base. Sardinas had two key errors that ended up scoring runs in the game's first two innings.
Andrus did make a fantastic defensive play in the top of the ninth inning before leading off the bottom of the ninth with a beautiful bunt single before he was quickly killed by a double-play grounder off the bat of Shin-Soo Choo as the Rangers lost a 6-5 game — their second straight loss to Baltimore.
Hopefully for the Rangers' sake, that ninth-inning spark Andrus provided will carry over into Thursday's game and he can get on another hot streak because it's pretty clear the Rangers are in need of just that.
