Little League HR fuels Rangers' 7-run inning

May 18th, 2022

ARLINGTON -- Rangers bench coach and offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker once referred to Eli White as a Ferrari. Back in Spring Training, he said the 27-year-old outfielder had the biggest engine in the entire organization.

He showed off that Ferrari engine on Tuesday night, on what should’ve been a routine RBI single in the eighth inning of the Rangers' 10-5 win at Globe Life Field. Instead, Angels left fielder Brandon Marsh misplayed the hop and let it get behind him all the way to the warning track while White zoomed around the bases and eventually dove into home plate for a Little League homer that brought home three runs.

Manager Chris Woodward noted it was an even bigger accomplishment after White went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts before that at-bat.

“You're not always gonna have a great first three or four at-bats,” Woodward said. “That's the hallmark of a player who just won’t quit. No matter what you do with the fifth at-bat, you're still gonna have punched out four times, so to put that aside and say, ’Okay, what's the next game plan? I'm not gonna let that carry over to my fifth at-bat when my team needs me.’ That's what really good players do. And Eli was breathing in that last at-bat.”

White’s speedy dash punctuated a seven-run eighth inning that powered the Rangers to their second straight win over the Angels, putting them in position to sweep on Wednesday.

Texas entered with an 0-15 record when trailing after seven innings in 2022. Mike Trout's solo shot put the Angels up 4-3 in the seventh.

In the eighth, the Rangers' offense made quick work on a duo of Angels relievers. Texas did so even before White’s bases-clearing hit. Corey Seager led off the inning with a bloop double and came around to tie the score after an infield single from Adolis García combined with a throwing error.

Nathaniel Lowe, who was 1-for-31 before a plate appearance in the eighth, then had the go-ahead hit with an RBI single. Sam Huff -- the club’s No. 11 prospect, who had a three-hit night -- added to the party with a two-RBI single of his own. Then White broke it open and the Rangers never looked back.

The seven runs were the most the Rangers have scored in any frame in 2022.

While there wasn't one singular moment that drove the inning, it was just repeated good at-bat after good at-bat that “passed the baton” throughout the order, White explained. Nobody had to knock one 500 feet into the stands, but it was a consistent team effort.

Woodward said back-to-back walks from Jonah Heim and Kole Calhoun to load the bases for Lowe may have been the biggest plate appearances of the night.

“We just made [their pitchers] work really hard, especially with the walks,” Woodward said. “Jonah’s really stands out. He just fought and fought and ends up drawing a walk right there. Then it’s first and second with nobody out and the whole thing changed. That changed that whole inning.”

It was an even bigger accomplishment for Texas to come out of that inning with runs after squandering a bases-loaded, one-out opportunity during the previous frame. Back-to-back strikeouts from White and Marcus Semien sent the Rangers into the eighth still trailing by one.

Instead of moping in their lost opportunity, the Rangers rebounded to take the lead and pour on the runs.

“Every inning is another opportunity and every pitch is another opportunity,” Woodward said. “We just cannot get caught up in what's happened before. We learn from it, but we have to just be relentless in our pursuit and just have quality at-bats after quality at-bat.”

“It’s just really cool to see everything click in that one inning, in one game,” said Calhoun, who had homered earlier in the game against his former team. “That's what this team can do. That's what we're capable of if we go out there and just do what we can do and not try to be bigger than the situation. It wasn't any home runs, it was a blooper here and a few singles and then a big error. And before you know it, we've got seven runs.”