ARLINGTON — The league officials promised Texas Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe that the drug test he had to take on Tuesday night was random. According to league guidelines, it is, though it doesn’t necessarily always feel that way.
He won’t fret on nights like these.
“I’ll stick around and give them the sample every night if I have to,” Lowe said Tuesday.
Lowe — who hit a pair of two-run home runs — had two of the Rangers’ eight extra-base hits in a 7-0 win vs. the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field and were backed by seven innings of one-hit ball from right-handed starter Nathan Eovaldi. Eight of the Rangers’ nine starting position players recorded at least one hit; the only one who didn’t (designated hitter Derek Hill) bashed two home runs in Sunday’s 11-2 win against the first-place Baltimore Orioles.
Like that first 2-run HR from Nathaniel Lowe? Here's another one for ya. 👀💥
— SportsDay Rangers (@dmn_rangers) July 3, 2024
Rangers up 5-0 in the third. #StraightUpTX
(via @BallySportsSW) pic.twitter.com/NDmfA9286k
It’s a microscopic sample size that’s largely overwhelmed by a half-season of subpar hitting results, but, the Rangers’ offense has looked its most dangerous of late in the last three games.
“Good hitting is contagious,” Lowe said. “Bad hitting in the same way. When we get two or three guys rolling, then I think the sky is the limit for this offense.”
The Rangers hit one-time trade target Dylan Cease hard and far for eight hits and six runs in the 3 2/3 innings that he pitched, and of their first nine hits, seven were categorized as hard hits: a 103 mph Josh Smith single followed by a 98 mph Lowe home run gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead in the first inning; Jonah Heim (104 mph double) and Leody Taveras (105 mph double) put Texas up 3-0 in the second, and Lowe drilled a 101 mph two-run home run off of Cease in the third to take a 5-0 lead.
It was the soft stuff — an 82 mph Taveras double followed by a run-scoring bloop single from Marcus Semien — that chased the right-handed Cease from the game with two outs in the fourth. Rookie Wyatt Langford helped welcome his replacement (right-hander Stephen Kolek) into the action with a one-out, 108 mph double in the fifth that landed the 22-year-old on third base after San Diego center fielder Jackson Merrill fumbled the transfer. The recently-recalled Jonathan Ornelas, who’s on the roster with shortstop Corey Seager sidelined after being hit by a pitch on Saturday and hit ninth vs. the Padres, delivered Texas’ final run and extra-base hit with a 105 mph run-scoring double off of Austin Davis in the sixth inning.
“We just haven’t been consistent offensively,” Bochy said of the team’s play in the last two months. “We’ve had a guy hot here or there, but not throughout the order. Now we’re getting production everywhere.”
The barrage began in the three-hole with Lowe’s first home run, though, on which he clubbed a high Cease changeup into the right field stands. He mashed a 96.5 mph fastball into left field for his second one of the night and the fourth in his last six games.
The 28-year-old former Silver Slugger award winner has slashed .304/.339/.589 in his last 15 games after a down May in which he yielded just a .666 OPS and a single home run. For a Rangers offense that has yet to find steady footing through three-plus months of the season, a resurgent Lowe in the heart of the order is one significant fix.
Texas has received below league average production from its three-hole hitters this season behind Semien at leadoff and Seager in the two-hole. Adolis García — who doubled on Tuesday and has slugged .571 in his last seven games — is starting to settle back into his productive self at cleanup; a resurgent Lowe in the three-hole (or, elsewhere
“First basemen that don’t hit homers don’t stick around often,” Lowe said. “I value my job and my team values this job, and the team needs me to drive the ball to win games. It’s been nice to be able to come through this week and get the ball out of the yard.”
It hasn’t been just Lowe — whose now .751 OPS is slowly creeping back toward his .774 OPS of last season — that has struggled to hit for consistent power. The Rangers began play Tuesday with a 6.6% extra-base hit percentage (meaning the percentage of all plate appearances which end in an extra-base hit) that ranked fourth-worst in baseball and a below-average .376 slugging percentage. They’d hit the fewest doubles (112) in baseball prior to Tuesday’s win after they finished second AL-wide in that category with 326 last season.
But, since Saturday’s loss to the Baltimore Orioles, the Rangers have had a 17.6% extra-base hit percentage thanks to 21 extra-base hits in a three-game period. The league-leading Orioles, for reference, have a 9.6% extra-base hit percentage. Texas led the AL with a 9.6% last season.
The last three days have looked a bit more like last season.
“There’s no getting around that,” Bochy said. “It is.”
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