CLEVELAND – Water-logged and rain-delayed, the Rangers reached the first significant mile-marker of the season Tuesday afternoon, by which point the story lines of a season should become evident.
As if they weren’t evident enough before, like a techie from the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store, the Rangers demonstrated them all over again in splitting a doubleheader at Cleveland by identical 6-3 final scores.
And yet, perhaps, they still turned the page. Marcus Semien’s bat has finally arrived.
Despite an embarrassing and costly defensive lapse in the first game, Semien hit three homers over the course of the day, tied a franchise record with seven hits in the doubleheader and reached an eighth time on a walk. In the course of eight hours of baseball, he raised his batting average 25 points to .221. It’s the first day this season, he’s finished at or above .200.
The Rangers are 26-29 and the day was still filled with too many wasted chances by the offense, an inconsistent performance from the intended ace of the rotation and sloppy infield defense at a critical moment in the opener leading to more runs for the opponent.
But, the single biggest issue that has kept the Rangers from spending more than a single day at .500 has been a slow-churning offense. Nothing had better symbolized that than Semien. If he is emerging from a career-worst start, the offense, as a whole, may start to fire better. Over his last 13 games now, Semien is now slashing .339/.394/.631/1.025 with all six of his home runs.
The offensive performance helped dilute the acidity of a first-game blunder that seemed to paint the most vivid picture of the season to date. It featured Semien simply losing track of the situation, allowing a runner to score from second on a ground ball that never left the infield grass. It didn’t lose the Rangers the game, but it did leave a mark.
Semien, playing short for just the fourth time this season, charged Andrés Giménez’s two-out, seventh-inning chopper from behind second base. The ball hit off the pocket of his glove. Then he kicked it. He slowed down to corral it and to make sure Giménez didn’t try to advance. All the while forgetting about pinch-runner Oscar Mercado, who rounded third, and then picked up speed again to sprint home.
By the time Semien realized it, perhaps from reliever Garrett Richards’ shouting and pointing his throw was off-balance and late. Richards’ frustration punctuated the moment: He spun around and made an exaggerated throwing motion. Semien spun, too, seemingly in self-disgust.
“You don’t expect that to happen,” Woodward said. “You’ve got to keep your head up there. But I think Marcus would be the first to tell you that. He realized right away that it was a mistake and he shouldn’t have done it.”
It was the kind of fitful day that has come to exemplify this season. One step backward and one step forward. It was hardly the only mistake in the opener, merely the most egregious.
The Cleveland run in the seventh had sprung to life as a throwing error from just recalled third baseman Andy Ibáñez, whose throw in the dirt long-hopped Nathaniel Lowe. The Rangers went 0 for 12 with men in scoring position over the doubleheader. They are 4 for 47 (.085) since reaching .500 a week ago. Game 1 starter Jon Gray battled command issued that sparked second- and third-inning rallies.
“This is one of those days when it is really not fun,” said Gray, who has one win in nine starts. “I was really fast in my delivery and sprayed the ball all around. I’m really frustrated. I knew what I was doing and thought I made an adjustment; it felt like an adjustment, but in reality, I didn’t. That one is on me.”
Neither’s Gray’s struggle nor his own mistake deterred Semien. He began the day with a single and Corey Seager followed with another. It marked the first time all year the Rangers’ Half-A-Billion Boys began a game with consecutive hits. It was their 19th time batting 1-2 in the order. It was only the fourth time they’d had consecutive hits.
He also stole two bases on the day giving him 10 in 11 attempts this year, just five short of the career high he set last year. He’s now 25 for 27 (92.6 percent) over the last two seasons, making him the second-most effective basestealer over the last two years (minimum 25 attempts).
Then came the homers.
It all marked a day that included the kind of play he’d love to forget and the kind of performance on which the Rangers would love to build.
Semien Season has begun.
