Delino DeShields back to setting tone for Rangers

Sometimes it’s the little things that win baseball games.

At 5-foot-9, rookie Delino DeShields isn’t the biggest player in the Texas Rangers’ clubhouse, but he’s having a huge impact on the success of the team.

During the first two games against the San Diego Padres, DeShields showed why his success has been such an unexpected boon for the Rangers through the first half of the season.

On Friday, he single-handedly manufactured a run in the first inning to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead, their first at any point in a game in more than a week. DeShields walked, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a what manager Jeff Banister jokingly referred to as a 137-foot pop-up.

DeShields scored on a shallow sacrifice fly just off the dirt behind shortstop when third baseman Will Middlebrooks put his head down for a split second after the catch. That’s all the time DeShields needed.

“At this level, one run is huge,” Banister said. “Other clubs have to plan for him. When he’s on base, they have to pay attention to him. He’s earned the right to give our offense confidence.”

That’s what he was doing when he became a regular in the lineup in early May and then moved to the leadoff spot on May 22 at Yankee Stadium.

The Rangers were 13-7 with DeShields at the top of the order before a strained left hamstring sidelined him on June 14. Without DeShields, the Rangers went 8-11. They were 1-3, entering Saturday’s game, since his return on July 5, and as he settles back into the role and acclimates again to major league pitching, his position as offensive catalyst can already be seen.

In the third inning Saturday, DeShields watched as Padres ace James Shields walked leadoff hitter Rougned Odor on four pitches after getting ahead 0-2. Robinson Chirinos followed with a double as Shields struggled finding the strike zone.

So DeShields didn’t take the bat off his shoulder for ball 1. Or strike 2. Shields walked him on five pitches to load the bases. The next batter, Shin-Soo Choo, tied the game at 3-3 on a 4-6-3 double play but Shields was taxed for 31 pitches in the inning.

“Right now Delino is doing everything he can to stay in the lineup,” Banister said. “I wanted to give this offense and Delino a chance to do some of things similar to what we were doing before Delino got hurt.”

In the fifth inning Saturday, DeShields moved Chirinos to second with a sacrifice bunt to put him in scoring position with one out. The Rangers failed to bring him home, but DeShields continues to check every box he’s been asked to since the Rangers nabbed him in the Rule 5 Draft from the Astros last December.

The Rangers lost 6-5 Saturday when a 5-3 lead in the ninth-inning vanished amid a Padres rally capped by Yangervis Solarte’s two-run home run off closer Shawn Tolleson.

“My goal is to go out there and try to produce any way I can,” DeShields said. [Friday] we did it without getting a hit in the first inning. A run is a run. I try to cross home plate at least one time during the game. That’s my goal. Scoring early gives everybody some breathing room.”

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 10:20 PM with the headline "Delino DeShields back to setting tone for Rangers."