ARLINGTON -- Leody Taveras hasn’t had the most direct path to the Rangers’ big league club this year.

The 22-year-old outfielder started the season on Texas’ Opening Day roster before being optioned on April 26 after going just 4-for-46 with one RBI in 15 games. He was only recalled due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak among the Rangers’ roster and struggled to get any traction to start.

But against Colorado, Taveras has raked. On Tuesday night, he hit his second homer in as many games in the Rangers’ 4-3 win over the Rockies at Globe Life Field.

Over these two games, Taveras has been more comfortable in the batter’s box and has put together more quality at-bats in the short period of time.   

“When you don’t have conviction in the box and you don’t have confidence, great hitters don’t look good,” said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. “For him to get off a little bit and hit another ball hard, hit a homer, that just makes him sleep a little better, and he comes in the next day with a little confidence. It’s amazing what confidence can do.” 

Before he hit his first homer in Monday night’s series opener, Taveras was 0-for-31 in the big leagues and 0-for-19 since his most recent recall. He said after that game, he hoped one hot night would get him into a groove at the plate. In two games against the Rockies, Taveras went 3-for-6 with two home runs, three extra-base hits, a walk and two stolen bases.

Taveras said on Monday that it felt good to get his confidence back on the big league stage.  

“It's just one hit to kind of get something going, get something freed up,” Woodward said. “I think everybody on the bench, when he got that first hit, the double in to right-center [field], everybody in the dugout was going bananas. Then in the next at-bat, on the first pitch, he hits a home run. It just shows you how sometimes, just a little bit of success takes the tension off, and it just frees you up out there.”

Taveras made his MLB debut during the COVID-shortened 2020 season after initially skipping Triple-A all together. He slashed just .227/.308/.395 with four home runs in 33 games, and he has been working to return to form despite the loss of a full season.  

Hitting coach Luis Ortiz said that while Taveras isn’t a finished product, he’s been able to make all the adjustments the staff has asked of him between his two stints in the big leagues this year. That started with minimizing his movement in the box and controlling the strike zone. 

Ortiz said Taveras is organizing his body better and working on getting hits instead of trying to hit a home run in every at-bat.  

“One of the things I’ve been showing him is where he’s been pitched,” Ortiz explained. “The first few games, they were really pounding him away. So it’s like, what is it that the other teams are seeing that is making them do that? Just like a pitcher tips his pitches, a hitter can stop his hitting [tendencies]. That’s one thing we wanted him to understand. So he’s got to open his frontside up early. That's just some of the things he's been more aware of now.”

A switch-hitter, Taveras’ home run on Tuesday came from the right side, while the one on Monday came on the left side. It’s the first time in his career that he’s hit home runs in consecutive games.  

Woodward said that he’s made some in-game adjustments to his stance that let him square up the ball more consistently. He loosely compared Taveras to Cody Bellinger, who didn’t start hitting home runs consistently until his third year in the Minors.  

“If you watch him take batting practice, he is as strong as anybody,” Woodward said. “He hits bombs in BP. He can really drive a baseball. Leo is one of those guys that [is] so young. If he learns how to just be consistent in getting that barrel to the ball, he's gonna hit some home runs.”

Speed, not power, has always been Taveras’ signature, but he’s hit more home runs at Triple-A Round Rock this season (17) than he did in his previous two Minor League seasons in 2018-19 combined (10). 

The speed didn’t go anywhere, though. It was also his second career game with two stolen bases after he took a walk and proceeded to steal second and third in the bottom of the sixth inning. 

Woodward emphasized how important it is to have someone with the speed like Taveras -- who ranks in the 99th percentile of sprint speed, according to Statcast -- get on base consistently.  

“It just creates a ton of pressure,” Woodward said. “The pitcher feels him everywhere he’s at. If you have that kind of threat, plus the power threat and the ability to defend the way he does, he can impact the game every night.”