ARLINGTON, Texas — It was such a promising start. The first batter of the season for the Rangers homered. The next three all reached and scored.
And that, friends, constitutes the entirety of the Rangers’ first inning scoring for the year. They are 18 games in now in case you are wondering. Not ideal. Especially not ideal when you consider that newcomers who cost the Rangers more than half a billion dollars and Isiah Kiner-Falefa have taken all but 16 of the plate appearances at the top of the order.
The Rangers brought guys like Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Mitch Garver, Kole Calhoun and Brad Miller in to get things started. They are still waiting. Another first inning came and went with nothing happening Wednesday in a 4-3 loss to Houston.
“It’s going to get better,” manager Chris Woodward said. “Obviously we have some really good hitters at the top. I’m really confident those guys are going to be really productive for us. It’s just a matter of time.”
All of which is probably true.
Still, the Rangers would prefer not to get buried under their record before the first month of the season is done. They are just 6-12.
A year ago, the Rangers ranked 29th of 30 teams in first-inning scoring, getting just 59 runs in the first. And they scored five of those on opening day. It was a complete nosedive afterwards.
That, however, was a team full of young hitters trying to prove they belonged in the majors. This team has established veterans. It turns out, they too, may occasionally suffer from trying to prove their worth, especially after signing huge contracts. In case the numbers haven’t been repeated often enough: Seager received a 10-year, $325 million deal; Semien seven years and $175 million.
Semien, hitless in four at-bats Wednesday, is hitting just .167. It’s worth noting that last year, as a newcomer to Toronto, he struggled for the first month, as well, posting a .658 OPS. Things turned out well enough. He set a record for homers by a second baseman (45) and finished third in the AL MVP voting.
Seager, who turned 28 on Wednesday, has just eight hits, all singles, over the last 11 games after a hot first week. He did drive a ball to the wall in left center in the eighth inning Wednesday, but was also hitless for his four at-bats.
The quintet of newcomers who have taken virtually all of the at-bats in the top three spots in the order are slashing a composite .180/.249/.234/.483 while there.
Pressure to live up to the contracts? Hey, neither is talking about it, but who would? Only in hindsight is that an admission anybody would make. Just remember how Shin-Soo Choo dismissed notions he was worried about living up to his deal back in 2014 while he struggled through the first year of a seven-year, $130 million deal. The next season when he rebounded, he acknowledged he had indeed struggled trying to meet expectations.
“They want to help us win,” Woodward said this week. “They are human beings. They feel like they have an obligation to help us win. I’d be worried if, after signing a long-term contract, you didn’t have that thought of: ‘We’ve got to get this thing going’.
“But they also know they’ve been around long enough to not panic, not lose their mind in the process and abandon everything that got them to this point.”
Miller, who homered in the club’s first at-bat of the season and was 4 for 11 in the first two games, is hitting just .129 since. He was dropped from hitting first against right-handers to ninth on Wednesday.
Calhoun replaced him. Calhoun had been 4 for 5 with a pair of homers against Houston’s Cristian Javier. The numbers stuck out, but so did the fact that Calhoun is a lefty who typically has feasted on early fastballs. It seemed like a good matchup to get something started. Alas, Calhoun began the bottom of the first with a strike out.
It should be noted, though: Calhoun did single in his next two at-bats against Javier. The thought was solid, even if it didn’t produce the desired result.
In the first, Semien and Seager followed with a ground ball and a lazy fly. It was a 9-pitch inning. Story of the night. Story of the season to date.
The Rangers are still waiting for their first-inning bang for the bucks.
