Last season, even though the Texas Rangers were one of the best teams in the league for much of the season before an epic collapse in September and one-and-done "playoff" appearance, there were a few glaring weaknesses shown throughout the year.
One of those was the way the Rangers ran the bases, whether it was stealing bases or taking the extra base and just putting pressure on opponents. In 2012, the Rangers just got away from that style of baseball and it hurt them.
On Thursday in their Cactus League win over the Oakland A's, the Rangers flashed some of that aggressive play. It came from the spark plugs of the offense in leadoff man Ian Kinsler and No. 2 hitter Elvis Andrus, and it instantly resulted in two runs thanks to aggressive base running.
Kinsler led off the first inning by reaching base on an error and then went from first to third base on an Elvis Andrus hit to left field, forcing a throw to third and allowing Andrus to reach second base on the throw. That set the Rangers up with runners on second and third and no outs, leading to two sacrifice flies from Lance Berkman and Adrian Beltre.
True, it's just spring training. But that was a good sign moving forward for the Rangers and hopefully a sign of things to come from the Rangers in 2013.
