Wash's Wrench Gets Things Going

The offense of your Texas Rangers has been struggling for quite some time now. In fact, it's been a pretty direct correlation with Josh Hamilton's broken arm suffered on April 12.

Elvis Andrus is struggling, Ian Kinsler is really struggling, Adrian Beltre has struggled. You get the point.

But on Tuesday night, Ron Washington shook up the lineup to face the division rival A's, and something clicked.

Washington batted Julio Borbon in the leadoff spot for the first time this year, kept Andrus at No. 2 and moved Kinsler from leadoff to No. 3, hitting Michael Young in the cleanup spot for the first time his lengthy career.

Young went 3-for-4 and was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. Young has been hot all year, and Mitch Moreland took his season average up to .300 hitting in the 5-hole. Beltre was dropped to No. 6 and responded with a two-run homer to end him homerless streak.

"Well you know, you just gotta continue playing," Washington said. "I just decided that I'll have some fun with the lineup and move it around, because I'm a steady guy, I believe in guys knowing where they are every day and knowing what their job is. At least when you show up at the ballpark you know what you have to do. But I just decided that I'll move some things around and see if they can start having fun again and maybe being in a different spot in the lineup might awaken us."

Today against the A's, as the Rangers attempt to win their first series since sweeping the Royals April 22-24, Wash has basically the exact same lineup other than giving Andrus a day off and inserting Andres Blanco into the 2-hole, which might be a little high for Blanco to hit but after scoring 7 on Tuesday, it's easy to stick with that general idea.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us