Semien toughs way through swollen wrist to pace Rangers' offense, avoid sweep

TORONTO -- There’s your booming bounce-back.

The Rangers’ big bats took the reins on Sunday afternoon, leading their club to a 10-4 win over the Blue Jays to avoid a sweep and leave Rogers Centre on a much-needed high note. It started with the trusted veterans and it spread through Texas’ lineup, the type of dominant outing that can give a struggling team something to build on.

After two contrasting losses to start the weekend, everything finally clicked for the Rangers in the finale. Who better than Marcus Semien to kick the door open?

“He's so tough,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “He's got to be, I'd say, one of the toughest, if not the toughest player, I've ever had.”

Semien returned following a rare day off on Saturday due to right wrist soreness after he was hit by a pitch the previous night. He played through it in the opener, hitting a two-run homer in his final at-bat, but the swelling was too intense to overcome the following day, and Semien watched from the dugout as his team took a 14-2 loss.

“Yesterday was tough, because it was a bad game for us,” said Semien. “So it's definitely tough to see the guys go through that. Obviously I was able to rest my legs, rest my hand and my wrist and come back stronger today, but yesterday was definitely a tough day.”

With his team in need of a spark and his wrist at about 70 percent, Semien declared himself ready to return. He picked up where he’d left off, clubbing another two-run shot that opened the scoring in the second. Two innings later, it was Semien’s two-out double that ignited a string of five consecutive hits to put two more runs on the board. He also added a single in the seventh to finish a triple shy of the cycle.

All of it while his wrist was still visibly swollen.

“It just shows his toughness and how much he wants to be out there,” said Corey Seager. “It's exactly what this team needs, just to watch a guy like that, with his stature and what he's about, take a ball to the hand and go out and still perform. It’s something that young guys can definitely look up to.”

The young guys took notice and followed his lead. Seager did his part, too, with a solo homer in the fifth. Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter joined the slugfest with a homer each in the following frames, helping put the game out of reach for a Blue Jays team with a knack for comebacks.

“It's good to see everybody doing something to contribute,” said Bochy.

The offensive breakthrough was a worthy way of backing the brilliance of Nathan Eovaldi, who looked determined to be the stopper from the first pitch he threw.

Eovaldi pitched seven innings of two-run ball, striking out six with no walks on five hits. The only blemishes were a pair of solo homers, but the bats did plenty to minimize the weight of those rare mistakes.

“Nate again,” said Bochy. “He got us back on track. I don't know what else to say about him. That's a tough lineup to get through, especially today. The ball was flying. It's a tough day for the pitchers. Good command today with all his pitches. Terrific job he did.”

This is the brand of baseball the Rangers trust they can channel more often. Throughout the weekend, Bochy spoke about the value of consistency and the importance of execution. Creating chances is only part of the job. Capitalizing on them has been a bigger challenge.

The Rangers did it all on Sunday, Their 3-for-5 mark with runners in scoring position was only part of the story in a game in which they made the most of seemingly all the traffic generated by their 15 hits and four walks.

Now the Rangers (62-63) will head to Kansas City for a three-game set against an AL Wild Card hopeful in the Royals. They have a fresh blueprint for success, one that’s orchestrated by their stars and embraced by the whole roster.

“They're your guys, they're guys you lean on,” Bochy said of the likes of Semien, Seager and Eovaldi. “For you to have success, they have to have success. As they go, we go. No doubt, from here on out we're going to need them doing their thing.

“It's going to take contributions from everybody, don't get me wrong. But they're ones that lead the way.”