Rangers alter lineup with hope of sparking runs

The Rangers have scored a lot of runs so far this season but they’ve often come in bunches, thanks to an American League-leading 28 home runs.

But the offense, as a whole, is not producing consistently, especially with runners in scoring position. The club’s .211 batting average before Tuesday’s game was the third lowest in the majors. Their on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS are all in the bottom third of the entire league. That includes a .244 team average with runners in scoring position. That drops to .213 with two outs.

“We’re not a two run a game team,” Manager Jeff Banister said. “I believe this offense can string at-bats and innings together and put runs on the board. I believe this can be a run-scoring offense.”

Banister altered the Tuesday lineup with hope of sparking the bats, including moving Shin-Soo Choo to lead off and hitting Carlos Gomez second. He’s also giving Ryan Rua an extended chance in left field after giving Jurickson Profar most of the time there the first three weeks. The Rangers are last in the A.L. for production in left field with .161 batting average, seven RBIs and six runs combined between Profar, Rua and Delino DeShields.

“We’ve given Profar a long enough look to see if we couldn’t get the bat going consistently. He’s had some good at-bats but it gets to a point where you need to try and find some production with where our offense is,” Banister said. “We need to try to find as much as offense as we can. I think it’s time to give Rua some extended opportunities.”

DeShields is likely to soon get a start in center field to give Carlos Gomez a day off. All three players, especially Rua and DeShields, had great springs but have seen infrequent at-bats in April. Banister wants to give Rua a chance with regular ABs for an extended period.

“This has been a real challenge, not on me, but for those three guys coming out of spring training,” Banister said. “It’s just a complete challenge for them because I guarantee you they’re pulling for each other while trying to grind it out themselves.”

Profar has started 13 games, including 12 in left. Rua has seven starts, including four at first base. DeShields only has five starts, including four in left. Profar is hitting .135 with no extra-base hits and a .289 on-base percentage. Rua’s numbers are worse but in far fewer ABs.

It’s a chance “to give [Rua] extended at-bats and move away from the platoon situation and give him a bulk of at-bats together,” Banister said. “To be able to get a better look at that he needs to have some extended at-bats, he needs to have some back to back games to try to get into that rhythm. We’re trying to get a guy in there to see if he can’t spark it. It wasn’t happening on the other end.”

It’s probably going to take more than just giving Rua a fair shot. Most of the lineup has been struggling most of April, except for Elvis Andrus, who leads the club with a .273 batting average. Jonathan Lucroy, Rougned Odor and Mike Napoli are all hitting below .190 with a combined 21 RBIs. Nomar Mazara, who leads with 17 RBIs, has even seen his average drop from .352 to .259 in a week.

“Our offense hasn’t been clicking on all cylinders,” Banister said. “We can either sit and keep doing the same thing or we can make some moves in some different areas and see if we can’t get this thing going in the right direction.”

This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Rangers alter lineup with hope of sparking runs."