This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BALTIMORE -- This is far from Andrew McCutchen's first rodeo. But it is his first as a Texas Ranger. So in that way, it’s all very fitting.
On Saturday night, when McCutchen doubled in the 10th inning of a Rangers win over the Phillies, he briefly hesitated before waving an invisible lasso over his head in celebration.
When asked how he came up with that, McCutchen said he didn’t even know. It just came to him.
“When I pulled up into second, I was like I’m going to celebrate, I'm going to do this,” McCutchen said of his spur of the moment celebration. “So basically, that’s the way that it went. Baseball is a very hard game, so you have to find ways to celebrate the things that go well. I'm a firm believer in celebrating each other no matter the situation.”
“Then people in the dugout were like, ‘Is this what we’re doing?’” McCutchen explained. “They said they didn't do anything last year. I'm like, ‘Nah, we've got to do something.’ You've got to celebrate each other, man, because getting a hit is very hard. I want my boys to be there saying good job to each other. So I need that affirmation for them. That's it.”
And the others quickly fell in line, with both Evan Carter and Jake Burger trying their best in Monday night’s win over the Orioles.
In Tuesday night's win over the Orioles, Rangers hitters continued lassoing around, though Carter was disappointed in Wyatt Langford's attempt, booing him from the dugout after Langford's third-inning single.
“Yeah, Cutch just did it one day on second that day in Philly,” Carter recalled. “He said he didn't know what to do on a double. But now that's what we're all doing. I’m OK with that.”
The Rangers are far from the only team with a doubles celebration or dance, and they certainly won’t be the last. But it’s yet another illustration of how things are different this year. The business-like approach that has percolated through the clubhouse over the last three years won them a World Series in 2023.
Like McCutchen said, getting a hit is harder than ever these days. Celebrating the little things hopefully ends with winning more games.
“If they get on base, they can do whatever they want,” manager Skip Schumaker laughed. “The goal is to get on base, so yeah. They can do whatever.”
And the Rangers have collectively been doing a whole lot of that to start the season. An offense that has been in the trenches over the last two seasons has shown life in each of the first two series, thanks to newcomers like McCutchen and Brandon Nimmo, as well as the regulars like Carter and Corey Seager.
“There's value in putting the ball in play and swinging at strikes,” Schumaker said of the offensive approach. “That's what we're trying to do. [Hitting coach Justin Viele] has talked about that from day one, and you can tell there's guys going the other way more.
"There's guys going up the middle and using the whole field. It felt like there were a million 3-2 counts just up and down the lineup. … Up and down the lineup, they stick with their approach. If you do that over 162, you're going to be OK.”