ARLINGTON, Texas — The Rangers entered May determined to apply pressure.
On Sunday, they did just that. On the field. And internally.
In a 7-3 win over Atlanta, full-court baseball — a steal of third and a squeeze play — opened the door for a big inning and keyed a series win over the world champions. Afterward, they pressured struggling Willie Calhoun to turn his season around, sending him to Triple-A Round Rock as part of trimming the roster from 28 to 26.
It’s the first option for Calhoun since he started the 2019 season at Triple-A and a message that his spot in the team’s future is hardly secure. The Rangers are keeping Zak Reks, called up Saturday, for now. At Triple-A, Leody Taveras, a better fielder and runner, is hitting .375.
“I think that’s the key to this whole thing is just performance,” manager Chris Woodward said after meeting with Calhoun to inform him of the decision. “I know there are other guys on our team who aren’t having great performance right now. I’m not going to say he’s the only one, but he does have [minor league options].”
While the Rangers have stressed adhering to a “process,” baseball decisions still ultimately come down to performance. Even if the performance is in barely 50 plate appearances as a part-time DH. But since he is limited defensively and as a runner, underscored by a bad baserunning mistake earlier in the week, his only way to contribute is to crush baseballs.
He has not. Calhoun, 27, is hitting .136 for the season in 44 at-bats. He does, however, have more walks (eight) than strikeouts (six). Batting average is hardly a reason for demotions any longer. Front offices rely on deeper stats that measure expectancy and probability. His xwOBA (Expected Weighted on Base Average) of .304 and average exit velocity of 89 were both slightly above average for the league to this point.
In the last 10 days or so, though, the Rangers believed Calhoun slipped away from the process they’d laid out for him and back into old habits. That led to a bunch of ground balls to the right side. The Rangers saw a hitter who’d fallen into “survival mode.” That can solve some things momentarily, but often leads to long-term issues.
“He’s definitely been a bit unlucky, but there have also been some recurrences of hard ground balls to the right side,” Woodward said. “The hard ground balls to the right side, that’s something we’ve tried to get away from. No more. It just doesn’t play in this game. Those are things we’re trying to avoid and things we are trying to work through.”
Calhoun, who was not available after the game, acknowledged trying to do too much lately, as had much of the offense. He said he’d gotten a little “jumpy” with the front side of his swing and that led to the ground ball situation.
“I’m not letting the power come naturally to me,” Calhoun said. “I’m trying to do too much in hitters’ counts. When you get in the lineup, you are trying to do something to help the team. It’s a little bit frustrating not getting hits. But you’ve got to grind it out.”
Grind it out was a good way to describe the Rangers’ series clinching win in front of 38,316 fans, the largest ever at Globe Life Field. At first it wasn’t clear if they were there to watch the Rangers, cheer the Braves or stick around for the screening of the Nolan Ryan documentary Facing Nolan.
But taking advantage of an opportunity to apply the kind of pressure-packed baseball Woodward craves certainly did seem to at least momentarily swing them towards enjoying the product on the field.
For the second straight day, the Rangers scored a first-inning run. They built it to 3-0, before giving two runs back in the top of the third in a style that seemed appropriate for the weekend’s theme: Reminiscence of good old days. Ron Washington was in town with the Braves. The Rangers wore throwback jerseys on Saturday. Ryan came back Sunday.
And so did … small ball!
In the third, Nick Solak singled to right field, went to second on a walk by Nathaniel Lowe and then got a running head start on a steal of third. That’s when Charlie Culberson, acting on his own, laid down a squeeze bunt. While Atlanta’s Matt Olson made a good play and a flip home, Solak was able to slide around the tag.
Before the inning was over, the Rangers had scored three more runs on Adolis García’s bases-loaded triple that got by a poorly-timed dive from Travis Demeritte.
“It was fun baseball, good baseball,” Culberson said. “Applying pressure is a big deal.”
The Rangers applied pressure to the Braves Sunday afternoon. And to Willie Calhoun Sunday night.
