Superstitious Seager hits 1st Rangers homer

ARLINGTON -- Corey Seager knew what locker he wanted when he returned to the Rangers' home of Globe Life Field for the club’s first homestand of the season.

In 2020, Seager won both NLCS and World Series MVP for the Dodgers when Globe Life Field was used as a neutral site for that season’s playoffs. Los Angeles was the home team and used the Rangers’ clubhouse, so Seager, feeling superstitious, wanted that locker once again.

“When I walked into the clubhouse after I signed, they actually had [Kole Calhoun’s] name on the locker,” Seager said Monday. “I told them it’s a lucky locker, I’d like to have it back. And they made that happen.”

The lucky locker is paying off already, with Seager launching his first homer in the building as a member of the Rangers in Thursday's 10-5 win over the Angels. It was a two-run, 401-foot shot into the right-field stands that gave Texas a 7-2 lead at the time.

Seager was joined in the home run column by catcher Jonah Heim in the victory.

“It felt good,” Seager said after the game. “I just thought we did a really good job all the way up and down the lineup tonight. Hitting is contagious, and when it starts, you just need one guy to get it going -- and Jonah did for us tonight -- and it just kind of rolled from there.”

Seager now has nine home runs at Globe Life Field, seven of which came during the 16 games he played during the 2020 playoffs. He sits in sole possession of third place on the stadium’s all-time home run list. Just two days ago, Seager was inches away from his first homer of the season, when Rockies outfielder Randal Grichuk made a leaping grab to rob it.

Angels left-hander Brian Moran threw Seager four curveballs in the at-bat, which Seager said he was more than aware of.

“Corey is one of those guys where you can make him look silly with one or two pitches, but you better not keep doing it,” said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. “He just forces you to make a quality pitch after a quality pitch. If you try to keep getting him out that way, he’ll get you. That's what great hitters do. That's typically a hallmark quality of those guys. You just can't keep beating them the same way. In that at-bat, they just went too many times to that pitch and he made them pay.”