Fielder, Moreland power Rangers to series win over Pirates

The signs were there. For the past week and especially in the past few days.

Prince Fielder and Mitch Moreland, who have struggled at the plate to varying degrees for much of the first two months, had shown signs entering the weekend series against the Pittsburgh Pirates that they were on the verge of a power surge.

Moreland got a head start with a homer Saturday night, his first in 15 games.

On Sunday, Fielder joined him with his first homer in 34 games, the longest homer drought of his career. Fielder’s solo homer started a four-run fourth inning that Moreland capped with a three-run homer to the upper porch in right field to power the Rangers to a 6-2 victory at Globe Life Park.

The Rangers won their eighth consecutive home series since losing two of three in the season-opening set against the Seattle Mariners. It’s the club’s longest such stretch in a season since winning nine home series in August-September 1993.

Texas, which begins a three-game series in Cleveland on Monday, moved into first place in the American League West after the Mariners were swept by the Twins.

“I had a few games where I just kind of had some hard luck. That’s part of it. You can’t really focus on the numbers. That’s for everybody else to worry about,” said Moreland, who is 3 for 34 in his past 10 games.

His three hits, including two homers, have come in the past four games.

“Things hadn’t got rolling yet. But I continue to do my work every day. Don’t worry about the results. Just continue to battle and stick with my plan and my approach. That’s what I’ve tried to do.”

Fielder, who has never hit below .261 in a full season in the majors, has been below .200 for most of the first two months. But he has hits in nine of his past 11 games to raise his average to .197. He and Moreland homered in the same game for the first time this season and fourth time overall. It’s only the second time they’ve hit homers in the same inning.

It was frustrating, Fielder admitted, early in the season when he was failing to make good consistent contact. For the past 10 days, however, he’s been striking it well, including four doubles.

“That’s always the better feeling,” he said. “When you hit the ball hard and make an out, or have a good at-bat but make an out, that is positive, but as a player, especially in baseball, it’s black and white. Either you made an out or you didn’t.”

Martin Perez (3-4) worked out of jams in the first, fourth and sixth innings to limit the Pirates to two runs on seven hits and a walk.

Perez left after escaping a mess in the sixth. The first two Pirates reached on singles but he stranded runners at the corners with a flyout, strikeout and and groundout. In the fourth, he had runners at second and third with no outs before getting two groundball outs and striking out Jordy Mercer looking at a 95 mph fastball.

“It’s not a struggle because I’ve been there before in that situation,” said Perez, who has improved at handling stressful innings. “Now, I feel more comfortable when there are runners on base and no outs. I just need to try to pitch where I want instead of trying to do too much.”

Banister lauded Perez for building on his past starts and learning how and when to use certain pitches with runners on base. He also expects his club to build on the success from Fielder and Moreland.

“These guys are core players for us. They’re big bats in our lineup. Obviously, we need and they need the feel-good of today,” he said. “I know that those are confidence-builders for those guys. They know that the stroke is still there, they know that the power is still there. It’s building on each at-bat.”

The signs, although at times subtle, have been percolating, as Banister has often pointed out. Finally, on Sunday, subtlety left the yard.

“There are stretches within a season where guys are not as sharp at the plate as they’d like to be or we’d like them to be, but I believe in both of those guys,” Banister said. “I believe in the impact that they have in our lineup and our players believe in the impact of those players and what they’re capable of doing for us this year.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2016 at 8:08 PM with the headline "Fielder, Moreland power Rangers to series win over Pirates."