Duran's energetic spark ignites Rangers' offensive identity

MILWAUKEE -- The Rangers spent much of their weekend in Milwaukee talking about finding an identity.

Ezequiel Duran might have provided the simplest answer yet.

“Be simple and don’t try to be a hero,” Duran said.

No heroics necessary. Just a home run, a go-ahead two-run double and another afternoon in which Duran seemed to be everywhere the Rangers needed him.

He drove in three runs and helped Texas erase an early two-run deficit in a 7-4 win over the Brewers on Sunday at American Family Field, snapping a four-game losing streak and salvaging the final game of a road trip that desperately needed a better ending.

The Rangers entered Sunday having lost 14 of their previous 17 road games. And when Milwaukee scored twice in the first inning for the third consecutive game, another frustrating afternoon seemed possible.

Instead, Texas responded.

“It’s going to take some heart and guts to fight back and to start getting more wins,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “And that’s exactly what happened today.”

Duran was at the center of it.

His towering, Statcast-projected 410-foot homer with two outs in the third tied the game at 2. Two innings later, with runners on second and third, Duran bounced a ground-rule double into the left-center-field gap to score both and give Texas its first lead of the series.

For Schumaker, the homer was nice. The double meant more.

“I know he got the home run, but I felt like the double with runners on base was where the momentum changed,” Schumaker said. “Such a big hit at the time.”

It was also another example of why Schumaker didn’t hesitate when asked afterward whether Duran has been the Rangers’ most valuable player this season.

“It’s tough to argue right now,” Schumaker said.

Duran has played all over the diamond. He has stayed healthy. He has produced offensively. And on a team that has spent much of an uneven season trying to establish exactly what it is, his energy has remained remarkably consistent.

Duran doesn’t make all of that sound complicated, either.

“That’s me every single day,” Duran said. “No matter what, I’m trying to bring good energy to my teammates in the locker room, in the dugout, and be positive every single time.”

That mattered on Sunday, because Texas needed more than Duran.

Cody Freeman doubled in his first at-bat before scoring the Rangers’ first run, and later added an RBI single. Joc Pederson homered with two outs in the sixth. Jake Burger drove in another run in the seventh.

Four of Texas’ seven runs came with two outs, a sharp reversal for an offense that spent much of the trip lamenting opportunities it couldn’t finish.

Schumaker has talked all weekend about offensive identity -- what the Rangers are, what he wants them to become and what they need to do differently down the stretch.

Sunday, he boiled it down to something less tactical.

“What are we willing to do to win today?” Schumaker said. “Sometimes it’s outside your comfort zone. … Sometimes you’ve got to make a change.”

The Rangers needed that mentality after Kumar Rocker required 86 pitches to navigate three innings. Tyler Alexander followed with two scoreless frames, as one of five Texas relievers who combined to cover the final six innings to keep the comeback intact.

It wasn’t the road trip Texas envisioned. The Rangers won the opener in Chicago, lost four straight and then finally won again Sunday.

“We won the first one and won the last one,” Schumaker said. “And nothing in the middle.”

Yet Sunday mattered beyond making the flight home feel a little better.

The Rangers return to Arlington for 16 of their final 25 games, still within striking distance in a crowded postseason race. Schumaker called this point of the season “must go, must win.” There isn’t much room left to wait for everything to click.

That’s part of what has made the inconsistency so maddening.

“We’re capable of it,” Schumaker said. “I think that’s why it’s frustrating. This is a very capable lineup to do damage and put up five-plus runs every day.”

One win doesn’t solve the Rangers’ road problems or define an offense that has searched for consistency all season.

But after a weekend spent talking about what they want to become, Duran and the Rangers finally showed some of it.

Heart. Guts. Timely hitting. And, for once on the road, a win.