Ryan Rua entered the 2015 season seen as the Rangers' primary left fielder, but it didn't take long for that to fall apart.
The same day Derek Holland made his season debut and lasted one inning before hitting the disabled list, Rua left the game after suffering a fracture in his foot. Upon his return, he struggled mightily but he's beginning to pick things up a bit and in recent days has seen quite a bit of action, particularly against left-handed pitching.
The Rangers' problems, as a team, against lefties has been well-documented, and while Rua is hardly a lefty masher, he's had success against them in recent days.
The outfielder has hits in each of his last four games and in five of his past six outings. In that time, he has three doubles and four RBIs and added a thrilling inside-the-park home run in Thursday's win over the Yankees.
This season, Rua is batting .233 against left-handed pitching, which doesn't sound great but compared to his .194 mark against righties, it's pretty good. These recent stretch is much better than that, and if he can get in a rhythm like the one he was in after a September call-up last year when he hit .295 in 28 games, it'd be a pretty big development for the Rangers.
