Rangers reaction: Rougned Odor drops two stink bombs in Houston

Welcome to the party, Rougned Odor. You’ve arrived just in time.

Odor has been showing signs of coming out of his season-long slump for the past couple of weeks and Tuesday night is the best proof yet that he’s back in a big way. He homered twice, including a huge, opposite-field, two-run shot that put the Rangers up 4-2 in the eight inning at Minute Maid Park. The Rangers held on with relief work by Jose Leclerc, Keone Kela and Matt Bush and go for the sweep Wednesday. The Rangers are back at .500 (32-32) for the first time since May 25.

“Just a huge night for Rougie,” Manager Jeff Banister said. “It’s been probably the last three weeks that we’ve seen the ratio of barrel to ball start to show up better for us. Some better swings, laying off some pitches down and out of the zone a little more consistently, limiting the chase. He came up huge for us tonight, really the last few nights.”

1. Tables turned — How quickly things turn around, huh? Last time the Rangers and Astros met we were declaring the Astros World Champions of Everything and preparing to give the Rangers their last rites. At the time, the Astros were in the middle of an 11-game win streak and the Rangers were taking on water. It was only 10 days ago, but geez, a lot has changed since. The Astros have lost six of eight since the streak and have been putting starting pitchers on the disabled list faster than Houston mosquito will suck your blood. The Rangers have won five in a row against the two best teams (on paper) in the majors and expect to soon get Carlos Gomez, starting pitcher Tyson Ross and back as early as this weekend. Ace Cole Hamels could make a rehab start next week. The tide is turning. Texas is 6-1 since getting swept by the Astros in Arlington. Perhaps it was a wake-up call. True, the Astros still lead the A.L. West by 11 games, but the Rangers are now just  1 1/2 games back of the second wild card. The postseason is no longer just a fantasy. It’s still early, of course, but as we’ve seen with the Rangers (remember 2015?), this just got interesting.

2. Props to Nick — Nick Martinez is unfairly criticized by a small faction of vociferous fans on social media. When he surrendered a lead-off homer to George Springer Tuesday night a few of the usual Debbie Downers popped up with their anti-Nick noise on Twitter. (I’m talking to you, Garoon!) Never mind that Martinez held the best offense in the majors to two runs on five hits over six innings. Never mind that he’s pitched well in five of his 10 starts this season, including his fourth quality start Tuesday. Not every starter is an ace. Most teams are lucky to have one on their staff.

“Really a gutsy performance for Nick,” Banister said. “Just some really nice pitches from Nick to keep those guys off-balance.”

Martinez forced nine groundouts, and except for the two solo homers, prevented the Astros from making solid contact for much of the night.

“He did a really good job of moving his ball around and got a lot of ground ball outs,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “It was not our night against him.”

3. What’s that smell? — It’s Odor, who is starting to stink up 2017 for the first time since Opening Day. And by stink up, I’m referring, of course, to one of his nicknames in the minor leagues: Stinky.

“Just the timing, rhythm, the look, the ability to get the barrel to a different mix of pitches,” Banister said. “He’s hit fastballs, he’s hit the off-speed pitch, he’s laid off some pitches down. He’s just forcing these guys to pitch to him.”

It’s Odor’s first multi-homer game since he hit two on Opening Day. Four of his 10 homers this season have come in the past eight games. He had three hits for the first time in 2017 and first since Sept. 12, 2016. He had 16 three-hit games in ’16. His two hits Monday and three hits Tuesday give him his first consecutive games with multiple hits in ’17. That’s something he did 18 times last season.

Jonathan Lucroy, who took batting practice with Odor before the game, said he was trying to hit everything to the opposite field. His two-run homer in the eighth was to the opposite-field.

“That’s a great approach to have. I expect him to just get better from here,” Lucroy said. “What he did tonight was really impressive.”

4. Walking Choo — Shin-Soo Choo matched a season-high with three walks Tuesday night, including a bases-loaded walk to drive in the Ranger’s first run in the fifth. Choo has 10 walks in the his last seven games and has 38 on the season.

5. Four outs for Bush — Closer Matt Bush earned his first four-out season save after taking over for Keone Kela with two on and two out in the eighth. Bush got Jose Altuve swinging on a curve ball down and out of the zone to escape the jam.

“That’s the same pitch I’ve been throwing since I was kid,” Bush said.

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 12:30 AM with the headline "Rangers reaction: Rougned Odor drops two stink bombs in Houston."