Rangers reaction feels good because Adrian Beltre feels good ... hopefully

The Rangers’ road trip is finally over and they’re set to get their captain back. Adrian Beltre is likely to return to the lineup Monday after missing the first two months with a strained right calf.

Beltre played in three extended spring games in Arizona and went 7 for 17 and made all the necessary plays at third base. He rested on Sunday and will be re-evaluated Monday before the Rangers’ series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays.

If he’s healthy, he’ll be in the lineup for the first time in 2017. Cue: Hallelujah Chorus.

Here’s the Rangers reaction after a weekend doughnut bender in Toronto:

1. Cashner Outside — Andrew Cashner likes hunting and fishing and one assumes, in general, being outdoors. Perhaps one of the reasons why he pitched so well Sunday in Toronto. The Rogers Centre roof was open for the first time in 2017 and after a first-inning run, Cashner held the Blue Jays scoreless on three singles, a double and two fourth inning walks, over the next six innings. Cashner didn’t fall behind much and threw strikes consistently with his fastball.

“He threw strikes. His strike to ball ratio was amazing,” Rangers catcher Jonathan Lucroy said. “He got after guys and kept guys off base.”

2. Speaking of Lucroy — He had two more hits Sunday, including an RBI single in the third that tied the game at 1-1. Lucroy has an RBI in six consecutive games, the longest streak since Rougned Odor had RBIs in seven consecutive games Aug. 29-Sept. 5, 2016. After a slow April with two doubles, a homer and four RBIs, Lucroy has been on fire for much of May. He’s hitting .333 with eight doubles, two homers and nine RBIs in 20 games in May.

“I’m getting there, I’m still grinding,” he said. “Hopefully I’m trending upward. It’s all about trying to correct bad habits. They’re sneaky and they’re hard to get rid of.”

3. Gallo not going — When Beltre returns to third base, Joey Gallo, who hit his 15th homer on Sunday, is likely to find himself in the outfield, most likely in left. His power is too valuable to sit on the bench and he has been showing gradual improvement at settling for a single or taking the walk. True, his batting average is .198. But his on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) remains more than respectable at .830, 58th best in the majors. His batting average should come up with more experience. And that needs to be major league experience.

4. Nomar Mr. Nice Guy — After a scorching hot start Nomar Mazara cooled off a bit at the end of April. Some of us overreacted during both stretches (myself included) but Mazara never did. He stayed cool, calm and collected through both bad and good. And to be fair, he didn’t really struggle for all that long. He had a stretch over the last 11 games in April when he was 3 for 42 and his average dropped from .352 to .229. It’s going to happen, as Mazara has often said. In May, however, he is back in a zone. In 23 games, he has 26 hits, including eight doubles, two homers, and 14 RBIs. He has hit safely in all but three of 21 starts in May and is hitting .321 and has a .916 OPS for the month.

5. Communication Breakdown — What’s up with Rangers fielders nearly running into each other? It happened in each of the three games in Toronto and luckily no one was hurt. On the Friday, left fielder Delino DeShields charged in to make the catch on a shallow fly ball and nearly ran over shortstop Elvis Andrus. On Saturday, Ryan Rua and Jared Hoying collided on a fly ball in left-center field. And then on Sunday, Rougned Odor inexplicably was on top of first baseman Mike Napoli on a pop up in front of first base that Napoli was camped under.

Here are some explanations, or attempts at explanations. In the case of Hoying and Rua, the Rogers Centre is a very loud stadium, even if fans aren’t intentionally making noise. There’s a lot of echo and the sound seems to bounce off the walls and the partially domed section over the outfield. Hoying said they were both calling for it early enough but neither could hear the other. Hoying made the catch and that one is understandable, especially considering that it’s two outfielders who haven’t been on the field together a bunch. The Odor/Napoli incident is harder to explain but simply put, Odor is such an overzealous player that he wants to help and be in on every pop up within a five-mile radius of the diamond so he’s constantly hovering around his fellow infielders and sometimes even the outfielders on shallow flies.

Andrus has given him the stink eye on several occasions after near collisions. The one that makes the least sense is DeShields and Andrus. Andrus was under it and as the shortstop would seem to have dibs on shallow fly balls. Perhaps DeShields didn’t hear or see him because he was running full speed while tracking the ball’s flight and Andrus’ voice would have been aimed away from DeShields in the noisy stadium. Alas, Banister doesn’t seem too concerned, at least not publicly. Perhaps conversations have been had behind closed doors. Might be a good idea before someone has their head taken off.

This story was originally published May 28, 2017 at 11:04 PM with the headline "Rangers reaction feels good because Adrian Beltre feels good ... hopefully."