Revamped Rangers’ lineup keeps the power on

A year ago, the Texas Rangers had three players hit 20 or more homers.

Two of those players are no longer on the active roster — Prince Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo.

The additions of Carlos Beltran and Jonathan Lucroy, however, have helped fill the void and the Rangers now have a lineup littered with six players with at least 20 homers before September.

Rougned Odor and Beltran lead the team with 24 homers, though Beltran has hit two since joining the Rangers in a trade on Aug. 1. Adrian Beltre (23), Mitch Moreland (22), Ian Desmond (21) and Lucroy, who has hit seven of his 20 homers since joining in the Rangers, also have at least 20. Nomar Mazara is within striking distance with 15.

The last time the Rangers had a lineup with at least six players with 20 or more homers was 2009. Nelson Cruz led the team that year with 33.

“I personally like it that way but I’m not going to throw away a guy who’s going to go hit 40 for you,” manager Jeff Banister said. “Those are really fun to have in your lineup, too.”

Two years ago, Beltre led with 19.

“It’s pretty significant really,” Banister said of his lineup’s power. “Especially when at one point I looked up there and I thought maybe we’d have one guy, possibly two, in the lineup that would have 20 home runs for the year. The last couple of years [homers] have been a huge commodity.”

Moving up

Moreland and Beltre lead the team with 11 homers since the All-Star break.

It’s a gratifying surge for Moreland, who struggled early and had 11 homers combined in the first three months.

Early season struggles would have messed with him mentally when he was younger, Moreland said. Now, he’s learned to ride it out.

“It was a lot easier to feel like something was wrong, like I was doing something that I didn’t need to be doing where now I feel like this is who I am, this is the stuff that makes me feel successful and feel good at the plate so I’m going to stick with it,” he said.

Moreland, who’s a free agent after the season, is hoping to set a homer standard for himself.

“Or 34, or 44 would be nice, too,” he said. “Obviously, I’m not going to burn up the base paths so my gig, I guess, is trying to go up there and drive the ball. To be able to do that a little more would be nice.”

Darvish day

Yu Darvish makes his 12th start Monday in the opener against the Mariners, who are tied with the Astros in second place behind the Rangers.

He’ll face Hisashi Iwakuma (14-9, 3.81 ERA) for the third time.

“I know this is an important game for all of us on the team. I just try and focus on what I can do and try to take it just as any other game,” said Darvish, who is 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA. “It doesn’t matter who we’re facing. I’m just going to go as long as I can in the game.”

“I think I’m in a better position than I expected,” he said. “Looking around at other guys who have had Tommy John surgery, compared to some of the guys who are struggling, I think I’m in a better place than I was expecting.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2016 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Revamped Rangers’ lineup keeps the power on."