Mitch Moreland heats up for weekend edition of Rangers Reaction

Mitch Moreland was drenched before he even stepped on home plate Saturday night. His teammates pelted him with water, Powerade and who knows what else after he hit the Rangers’ second-walk-off homer this week to beat the Royals 2-1. It came with two outs in the ninth, the sort of moment when everyone in the building is thinking long ball.

Especially, Moreland.

“In that situation, it’s kind of on everybody’s mind,” he said. “I put a good swing on it.”

A sellout crowd of 47,125 (Globe Life Park’s third-largest this season) was mostly still intact for Moreland’s heroics, which capped a fine performance from starter Martin Perez and reliever Matt Bush. The Rangers have won three consecutive games and increased their lead on the Houston Astros in the American League West by five games.

1. More on Mitch — It’s the second game-ending homer of Moreland’s career. He also did it against the Astros on June 21, 2011. Don’t look now, but Moreland’s numbers are creeping up on last year’s career-year. True, his batting average is still lagging at (.245 compared to .278 in ‘15) but he now has 17 homers and his OPS is up to .777 after sinking to as low as .633 on June 5. A year ago, Moreland finished with 23 homers, 27 doubles, 85 RBIs and an .812 OPS. It’s unlikely he’ll match those overall numbers, especially the RBIs but with a strong final two months he could turn what has been an underwhelming year into a success. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end so this likely is Moreland’s final two months with the Rangers.

2. Class honoring class — During Michael Young’s Rangers’ Hall of Fame ceremony he thanked a plethora of former teammates, including some still on the roster. He thanked the Rangers’ front office and his wife and close friends. But he made a special point to pay tribute to Rangers’ coach Bobby Jones, who watched the proceedings from the dugout steps. Jones, who is retiring after the season after 50 years in the game, is the longest-tenured active member of the Rangers’ baseball operations department.

“To this day, I’ve never met a more positive man than Bobby Jones,” Young said during the ceremony. “Thank you, Jonesy, for your friendship over the years, your commitment to making players better men and teaching me a few colorful words along the way.”

3. About those Stros — What a demoralizing day for the Astros. They rallied to score twice in the ninth inning against Justin Verlander to take a 2-1 lead in Detroit but the Tigers came back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to win 3-2. Houston is 7-7 since the All-Star break and had pulled to within 2 1/2 games on Wednesday. But the Astros, who were off Thursday, have lost the first two in Detroit while the Astros have won three in a row. The teams meats for a three-game series on Friday in Houston, the first of nine remaining games between the Lone Star rivals.

This story was originally published July 31, 2016 at 1:25 AM with the headline "Mitch Moreland heats up for weekend edition of Rangers Reaction."