Offense Soars With Backups

No Nelson Cruz? No Ian Kinsler? No worries.

The Texas Rangers had a makeshift lineup on the field for Sunday afternoon's series finale against the Houston Astros and did a little bit of everything offensively en route to a season-high 12 runs on 17 hits. Not bad for a bunch of light-hitting guys, huh?

Leonys Martin started in right field for Cruz and went 2-for-4 with a home run of his own. Leury Garcia started at second base for Kinsler and had a huge day, going 3-for-5 with an RBI, a stolen base and four runs while batting second in the order behind leadoff man Elvis Andrus.

Rangers manager Ron Washington took a lot of heat last year for not giving his regulars enough time off during the season as the team clearly stumbled down the stretch with a weak bench, but this year's squad has proven to have an effective bench who can be relied upon when needed, led by Garcia and Jeff Baker with either Craig Gentry or Martin usually being on the bench in a platoon situation, even though both started on Sunday.

Turns out, when you bench your two leading RBI guys on the season, you can still put up 12 runs. Who knew?

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