On Wednesday, even without Wyatt Langford, the Rangers looked like they were designed.
Texas Rangers designated hitter Jonah Heim, right, slaps hands with Kevin Pillar after Heim hit a two-run home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Chicago.
spent three days climbing up and down them, no easy task when you are shivering from a 20-degree windchill and balancing on spikes.So maybe after that face-whipping weather and a couple of days of beatdowns, the Rangers left Chicago with a little more than just chapped lips. Because over the final two games against the Cubs,, it certainly looked like the long-lost-offense may have finally stepped forward out of the shadows in which it has been hiding. Maybe it was just tucked away under the long-johns.’s longest outing in nearly three years - he went seven innings and allowed two hits - a mere footnote. Or maybe the Rangers are just getting used to exemplary starting pitching.But the offense, which was supposed to slug opponents into submission and give starters a big margin for error, stole the show. On Wednesday,, the Rangers looked like they were designed. Facing a lefty who relies heavily on a four-seam fastball, the Rangers hit lots of balls in the air and hard. In case anybody wants to flashback to the Hangover of 2024, lefties and fastballs were decided issues for the Rangers.said. “They were on time. It’s a big pitch for and our guys were on the attack. They were swinging with the tent. That was a good look, and that’s more like us. Sometimes you can get caught looking for a certain pitch or trying to make sure you don’t chase. They were going against a guy who throws strikes. And they were on the attack. That’s what you want.”lined the first pitch of the game, a fastball, to the wall in left for an out. It set the tone though. The ball left the bat at 96 mph. Corey Seager followed with an opposite field home run that left the bat at 100 mph, the first of two homers he hit Wednesday. Josh Jung followed with a drive to center at 105 mph. It was caught. A later one was not. The Rangers hit balls hard and all over the field. Seager’s second homer was pulled to the right field corner. Jung’s later two-out, run-scoring double was another laser to center. Jonah Heim hit a homer to center.In all, the Rangers hit 13 line drives or fly balls that left the bat at 95 mph or higher, eight of which were at 100 mph or higher. They were season highs, and not by a little, for both thresholds.Perhaps most notable was Seager’s first multi-homer game of the season. He’d entered the game hitting .194 with a .534 OPS. He wasn’t the only one struggling, but his numbers stood out as most un-Seager like. It was the worst 10-game start of his career. He’d missed the last three games of spring training with a calf issue, had sat out twice in the first 12 games as a concession to the calf and just didn’t look “right.” But even the calf injury didn’t exactly explain everything. In 2024 when he missed all of spring recovering from sports hernia surgery, he roared out of the gates to an .865 OPS through 10 games. Seager just hits. “He’s been trying to get his timing down,” Bochy said. “It was off. I think he’ll tell you that. It’s not uncommon early in the season and battling that calf, too, is hard. It’s hard enough to play this game at 100%, but he probably wasn’t. Now he’s in a good spot.”“I just wasn’t very good,” he said. “I was working on, uh, everything. I was trying to get in the right spot and couldn’t. And you’re not very good when you are not in the right spot.” Seager pointed out that he’d seen signs from the offense a night earlier when it scored six runs late, tied up a game late, only to lose it on defensive mistakes in the eighth. The Rangers had a season-high 12 hits on Tuesday to go with a season-high in runs. On Wednesday, they followed it up by matching the run production and dang near the hits, too, finishing with 11. “Really, the last two days, there’s been a lot of fight,” Seager said. “And a lot of good at-bats. You definitely see it trending in the right direction.” So maybe after climbing all those steps in the cold all week, the offense has actually taken one more to, well, to quote an old favorite in the clubhouse, higher.Evan has covered the Rangers since 1997. He has twice been named one of the top 10 beat writers in the country by the AP Sports Editors. His passions outside of covering baseball are his wife, Gina, his two step kids, two crazy dogs & barbecue. Let's not discuss the cat. Evan graduated from Georgia State University, but oddly is a Georgia fan.
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