Mazara, Odor giving lift to Rangers’ offense

The player who led the Texas Rangers in home runs last season knew exactly how long it had been since he last hit a home run or drove in a run.

“It’s been, like, 14 games,” Rougned Odor said Friday afternoon before the Texas Rangers faced the Chicago White Sox.

He was, like, right. Odor, who hit 33 homers in 2016, last connected Aug. 1 and has been stuck on 24 since. Yet, he couldn’t be happier and said he feels as good at the plate as he has all season.

Nomar Mazara lockers next to Odor, and it’s no coincidence that he is on a roll. Mazara has raked since an 0-for-26 streak that spanned the All-Star break.

The two, who have struggled at various times and for various lengths all season, have found their own way to challenge each other. Most of it is through their choice of words, and surprisingly most are PG.

The Rangers’ offense has been family-friendly, too, with two of their young building blocks doing their fair share to help get the lineup churning.

“I’ve been keeping Nomar and me together,” Odor said. “We’ve been talking at each other, playing around each other, and we’ve been staying happy all the time.

“That’s the only thing we’re doing different, especially him. He’s been playing around. If you pay attention to us, he yells at me and I yell at him all the time.”

Mazara put a scare into the Rangers on Friday as he tweaked his left knee in the eighth inning while leaping at the right-field wall for a Nicky Delmonico drive the turned into an inside-the-park homer off Ricky Rodriguez.

The ball smacked off the wall and rolled into shallow right field while Mazara crumpled to the ground. He remained in the game after being check by athletic trainer Kevin Harmon, seven teammates and manager Jeff Banister.

Mazara reached three times in the game, and scored a run on Mike Napoli’s two-run homer in the fourth. But Delmonico hit a two-run homer in the sixth and the go-ahead homer in the eighth as the White Sox snapped the Rangers’ four-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory.

Odor went 0 for 4 but said that he feels as good now at the plate as he has all season. That might not be saying much, as he entered Friday batting only .222, but that average was the highest it had been since Aug. 2.

He was 9 for 19 in the previous five games and had scored seven times. He had also swiped three bases, four for those who want to give him credit for the Tuesday steal of home that was wiped out by a balk.

His legs are feeling better, too, after dealing with tight hamstrings earlier in the season that limited his running. But when he’s running, he’s at his best.

“My legs were not 100 percent, so that’s why I was not playing like I play,” Odor said. “Now I feel great. My legs are feeling pretty good. I’m still not 100 percent.”

Mazara, as expected from someone called “The Big Chill,” never panicked as he was going through an 0-for-26 slide last month that dropped his average to .237. He entered Friday batting .365 since, .484 in the previous eight games, and .462 in the first seven games of the homestand.

Included in the seven-game stretch at Globe Life Park were 13 RBIs to give him a team-best 82. He became only the third Rangers players in the past 10 seasons to drive in 82 runs in the first 120 games of a season.

Mazara brought in five runs Thursday, including three on his 16th homer, as the Rangers won their fourth consecutive game to push their record to .500 at 60-60. While Mazara was making contact during his prolonged drought, he’s hitting more balls off of the barrel now.

“I’m just swinging the bat,” he said. “I just go out there and have a good approach, and when you put the ball in play like that, good things can happen.”

The offense was slowed Friday by James Shields and the White Sox’s bullpen after scoring 31 runs in the previous three games and at least four in 16 of the previous 17 contests.

Since July 25, the Rangers have the highest slugging percentage (.499) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.866) in the majors. Their 6.10 runs per game over the same stretch also leads the majors.

“We take it at-bat to at-bat,” Mazara said. “We’ve got nine innings we’ve got to play. We keep the lineup moving. We’ve got good at-bats and good things happening. I trust what I got, and the team’s been rolling right now. We’re putting a lot of good at-bats together.”

While Odor was surging this time a year ago in his third full season, Mazara was starting to show signs of fatigue and some difficulty adjusting to the league’s adjustments to him after a torrid start to his career.

But an offense program geared toward helping him making through a full campaign has him feeling fresh, or as fresh as a player can be, after 120 games. He’s a year wiser, too.

“I think I have a better plan and know what I’m doing right now,” he said. “Last year it was my first year in the big leagues and I was just enjoying it. Now, I know the situation a little better. That’s the big thing.”

And he’s getting a push from Odor, his neighbor in the clubhouse. Together, they’re helping push the Rangers’ offense.

This story was originally published August 18, 2017 at 10:55 PM with the headline "Mazara, Odor giving lift to Rangers’ offense."