CHICAGO -- Bruce Bochy has tried almost everything to get the Rangers’ offense going.
The manager changed things up on Friday night, moving cleanup hitter Adolis García to the eight hole, with Marcus Semien coming behind him, down to the nine-hole after spending the majority of his Rangers tenure in the leadoff spot.
The look was different, but the result was all too familiar. Runs were difficult to find as the Rangers dropped a 4-1 decision to the White Sox at Rate Field, their fifth straight loss.
“You never like to move two of your star players that helped lead you to a World Series championship,” Bochy said. “I'm a big believer in mixing it up. Maybe it’ll get them going. Maybe it’ll get us going.
“And I'll add to that, wherever you're hitting this order, a big spot is going to come up. I hope that players understand that there's a responsibility for every spot, wherever you hit in the lineup, to help us win a ballgame. Don't get caught up where you're hitting once you hit. You shouldn't even know where you're hitting in the order when it's over.”
The lineup shuffle is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Rangers have called up prospects and sent them back down. They’ve shuffled the roster as much as possible. They fired offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker and replaced him with Bret Boone. They’ve changed routines and batting stances and how they watch the game.
“Sometimes you just got to go with the feel, where you're at, where they're at,” Bochy said. “Again, I can't say enough about how hard they're working. They were all out here hitting early today. … They're trying their tails off to get on track. Maybe backing them off, putting them at the back end takes a little pressure off until they get locked in at the plate.”
Third baseman Josh Jung reached base four times in the series opener against the White Sox (one double, three walks). Every other Ranger reached three total times combined, including a walk by Sam Haggerty, a single from Wyatt Langford and an RBI double from Jake Burger.
García and Semien went a combined 0-for-6.
“I talked to both of them,” Bochy said. “They’re both trying to find their swing right now. We went ahead with the guys swinging pretty good at the top of the order to see if we can find a way to get more consistent scoring runs. How long we’ll have this lineup, I can't tell you, but we're just trying things out and see if we can get back to consistently putting runs on the board.”
García and Semien are not the only Rangers hitters who are scuffling. They’re just the two most prominent names.
The only healthy Ranger with an OPS over .800 is Jung (.812). Four others have an OPS over .700: Langford (.796), Josh Smith (.737), Jonah Heim (.709) and the recently called up Haggerty (.777).
The bottom half of the lineup has struggled most nights. That remained the case Friday, when the six through nine batters went a combined 0-for-13.
“It’s kind of the same story,” Jung said. “We’re struggling -- that’s easy to see. But at the end of the day, what can we do? Keep going, keep working. Everyone's got something to work on. Everyone can do something better.
“We just need to find that ‘pass the baton’ mentality. Everybody’s got to go up there and win their at-bat, whatever that looks like for them that day. If we put quality at-bats together, things will turn around.”
You got to do what you got to do to ignite the offense, Bochy said. But what else, tangibly, can one of the best managers in baseball do at this point when his offense remains inconsistent as ever almost two months into the season?
“You stay behind them,” Bochy said. “Every team goes through these things. This is the tough part about this game. That's why you got to have that toughness, that resilience to find a way to bounce back. The guys that can do it. This is when they need to know you're behind them, and we believe in them.”