DETROIT -- Rougned Odor has been red hot in the leadoff spot, but Rangers manager Jeff Banister has been looking for hits from the rest of the team. Five home runs and a two-homer day from Adrian Beltre did the trick, while Odor and Nomar Mazara made history.
There have been back-to-back home runs aplenty in MLB. However, blasts by Odor and Mazara marked the first time in Major League history that two players 22 years old or younger homered in back-to-back at-bats to begin a game, according to Fox Sports 1.
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"Yeah it's pretty special," Banister said. "It's fun, those guys are fun to watch. We've seen it from Odor, and now we get to watch it from from Mazara. And Mazara, it's special any time you see guys that young. Your eyes don't want to believe that they're that young, but you know they are, and you watch it. It's refreshing to see because it is a young, exuberant energy that our team tends to rally around."
In his third year in the Majors, Odor has provided the Rangers with an abundance of offense, but Beltre has struggled to find consistency at the plate. He finally broke a homerless dry spell that had spanned 14 games with his two-homer day.
For a while, though, Texas wasn't able to get to Detroit starter Mike Pelfrey when he gained control of his split-finger fastball and had the offense guessing. Not until the sixth inning, when the Rangers jumped on him and Mitch Moreland walloped a two-run shot, did the club catch up with Pelfrey's fastball again.
With the exception of Elvis Andrus and Prince Fielder, every other player in Texas' lineup finished with at least one hit, giving the pitching staff the run support it needed. But it was the hot-hitting duo of Odor and Mazara who sparked the Rangers' offense.
"Having that young energy at the top of the lineup has created some offense for us," Banister said. "We know that the veteran guys are going to continue to progress, get better, and really solidify the middle of that lineup. To have those two young guys doing what they're doing right now at the top of the lineup is really nice."