Choo, Rangers keep on streaking in win over Twins

The streak lives.

Yes, the other one, too.

For another game, the Texas Rangers couldn't have one without the other.

Shin-Soo Choo doubled in a run as part of a six-run second inning, extending his on-base streak to a career-best 36 games, and Yovani Gallardo allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings in a 9-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins that pushed the Rangers' win streak to seven games.

Adrian Beltre and Robinson Chirinos homered as the Rangers matched their longest winning streak since 2016. Chirinos drove in three runs, and Delino DeShields and Nomar Mazara each had a two-run single in the big second inning.

Choo, though, has been the offense's catalyst for more than a month with one of the finest streaks of his 14-season career. Plenty has gone into it, but Choo is trying to keep things simple and keep the streak (an his All-Star chances) out of mind.

"I know people always talk about it on TV, but I've told myself to focus on every pitch every at-bat," said Choo, who hit a two-run homer in Friday's win. "The extra things don't really help. I might strike out, but if I see a lot of pitches, that helps me in the next at-bat.

"Routine is the most important thing. What I did to prepare before games and how I did it. I follow everything that I did feel.

Choo credits hitting coach Anthony Iapoce and Beltre, who knows a thing or two about hitting, for his turnaround. It started with a mid-May conversation with Iapoce at Chicago about getting back to doing the things that make Choo good.

For the first six weeks of the season, which included an 0-for-17 skid, Choo had been getting too far in front and was yanking pitches to the right side. It was time to start letting the ball travel deeper again, to see pitches better, to make pitchers work.

The on-base streak was three games old entering the White Sox series. Choo reached nine times in the three-game series and hasn't stopped reaching base since. He has reached multiple times in 25 in his streak.

"It's just a relentless pursuit of looking to get on base," manager Jeff Banister said. "Drawing walks, but looking for pitches that he can drive. He's patient when he needs to be and aggressive when he needs to be."

Whenever he has felt out of whack, he has asked Beltre for feedback. Beltre, Choo said, has gone so far as to look at video of Choo's at-bats. That's what teammates are for, Choo said.

The rest, the vast majority, has been Choo, who has produced the longest on-base streak of his career. He wouldn't say where his current feeling at the plate rates in his long career, but he has two previous hot streaks since joining the Rangers that are in the conversation.

While many whine about the way his first season with the Rangers unfolded in 2014, he had a .500 on-base percentage through his first 28 games and it remained above .400 for another month as he started to feel the effects of elbow and ankle injuries.

After a sluggish start to 2015, Choo turned it on in the second half but especially so in September as the Rangers chased down the Houston Astros in the American League West. Choo was the best offensive player in the game that month, becoming the first player to lead MLB in average (.404), OBP (.515), hits (42) and runs (26) since Willie Mays in 1958.

He hasn't been that good during this streak, but he's been the Rangers' best offensive player.

"I feel like he was driving in a lot more runners [in 2015]," DeShields said. "But, yeah, it's pretty similar. It's not something that we haven't seen before. When things go well for him, it's not like a one-week span. It's a couple months."

This story was originally published June 23, 2018 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Choo, Rangers keep on streaking in win over Twins."