Rangers alter lineup again hoping to halt string of strikeouts

Rangers manager Jeff Banister used his 22nd different lineup in game No. 28 Wednesday night against the Astros. He’s still looking for anything, any order, to spur some consistent offensive production with six hitters hitting below .250, including three below .200.

The Rangers have relied on 66 home runs, including five on Tuesday, to account for 53.7 percent of their runs. Only the Yankees rely more on the homer.

For the first time this season and second time in his career Joey Gallo hit cleanup. Elvis Andrus hit third, his eighth spot in the lineup this season. The only place Andrus hasn’t hit in ’17 is leadoff.

Banister is trying to split up the high-strikeout hitters, which lately has been just about everybody. He’s also hoping to use the speed at the top of the lineup, including Gallo, to set up more run-scoring opportunities.

“Putting Odor in the two-hole is kind of a mental mindset change and the look of the four or five hole as opposed to the two-hole,” Banister said. “One has to be a little bit more hitterish.”

Hitterish, as Banister calls it, is not exactly what Odor has been through the first 27 games. He’s hitting .181 with 24 strikeouts. The Rangers have struck out 234 times entering Wednesday’s game, second-most in the American League. They also have the fifth-lowest on-base percentage in the majors at .297.

“There are times you have to put guys together who have put together the best competitive at-bats,” Banister said of Andrus and Gallo hitting third and fourth. Gallo hit fourth as a designated hitter once in 2016. “I wouldn’t have done it unless I didn’t feel like he was in a good enough spot to do it. He has done a lot of work. He showed a lot of confidence in us during spring training. I think he showed a lot of confidence in himself so I’m willing to reward that and show him the same confidence.”

The Rangers have struck out 234 times, second-most in the American League entering Wednesday’s game.

Mike Napoli, who is second to Gallo with 35 strikeouts, including four Tuesday night, hit seventh, the deepest in the order he’s hit since hitting seventh for the Red Sox on July 28, 2015. He’s been more hesitant to be a vocal leader as his struggles at the plate have continued. With multiple guys mired in slumps, Napoli said the best way to fight it is concentrate on helping the team, not your numbers.

“When I’m struggling it’s kind of hard to get that out there and show the guys,” he said. “I’m trying to find mine so they can feed off me and get it going but it’s about taking a step back and focusing on us as a group and stop worrying about individually and trying to get back on track.”

Easier said than done, of course, and Napoli knows that.

“We have seven guys struggling. We’re all trying to find our groove so sometimes it gets away from being a team thing and doing the little things together to get out of those things,” he said. “Everything is easy when it’s going right but these are the times where things are tough when you need to lock in and really focus on each other and not yourself. It’s only human — I want to do really good — but maybe get back in focusing on doing the team thing.”

Opposing pitchers have taken advantage of the Rangers’ free-swingers, including Odor, Gallo, Carlos Gomez and Napoli, by throwing them fewer strikes and playing on their aggressiveness. They’re seeing fewer fastballs, at least fastballs in the zone, and more off-speed pitches.

“We know the way the league is pitching to us,” Andrus said. “We need to understand how they’re throwing. They’re not giving us anything to hit even when they’re ahead.”

General manager Jon Daniels accepts that the lineup has some high-strikeout hitters. “Right now, a number of key contributors are slumping at once. It’s why it looks the way it does,” he said. “Napoli has been through this before. It doesn’t make it easier but I believe he will pull through it.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2017 at 8:06 PM with the headline "Rangers alter lineup again hoping to halt string of strikeouts."