ARLINGTON -- Nothing has really gone right for the Rangers in the midst of this eight-game losing streak. And as they tried to halt it in the series opener against vs. Minnesota, they were hit with another blow.
Outfielder Wyatt Langford left Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Twins with left side tightness in the fifth inning. He was 0-for-2 at the time of his departure.
Langford missed games on Sept. 19-20 against the Marlins due to left side tightness, but returned to the lineup for the series finale on Sept. 21, when he launched his team-leading 22nd homer of the season. He said postgame Tuesday that he had been dealing with some side tightness dating back to the Rangers' series in Houston from Sept. 15-17, but was able to play through it until recently.
Langford acknowledged wanting to continue playing through the final five games of the season, while also realizing that may not be feasible with where the team is at. The Rangers were officially eliminated from postseason contention Tuesday night.
“We're talking about [potentially shutting him down] now,” manager Bruce Bochy said postgame. “I'm getting with the training staff to see if this is an IL [stint], and [if] we don’t want to push it anymore. We’ll see how much worse it's gotten. We got to do what's right.”
The 23-year-old has been the best hitter in the Rangers’ lineup since shortstop Corey Seager was sidelined with appendicitis on Aug. 29. Langford’s batting .241 with a .775 OPS across 134 games this season.
Oblique injuries have been a minor issue for Langford in his young big league career. Just this season -- his second in the big leagues -- he has had two separate stints on the injured list with oblique strains, first from April 9-20 and again from June 27-July 5.
“Personally I thought my season was OK,” Langford said pregame on Tuesday. “I felt it definitely could have gone a lot better. Obviously, there's still a couple of games left, but I felt like I was battling some injuries all along that were kind of aggravating to deal with. That's kind of something I would like to maybe work a little harder in the offseason to prevent because I want to be out there every single day.”
So how does he do that?
“It's a golden [question],” Langford said. “I wish I knew the answer for that. But I mean, I just need to go out there this offseason, and work as hard as I can to just be prepared to play 162 games.”