Seager's 'impressive' blast kickstarts Rangers' offensive outburst

ANAHEIM -- It’s no secret that this year’s Rangers offense hasn’t replicated the success of last year’s outstanding lineup that helped secure the first World Series title in franchise history.

Over the last few days, however, the Rangers have shown glimpses of why they were widely believed to be one of the best and deepest lineups coming into the season. A day after Texas crushed the Rays and secured a sweep in Arlington, the Rangers started the road trip in Anaheim with a bang, beating the Angels 9-4. The Rangers have tied a season high with four straight wins, also done from June 19-23 and May 4-7.

The scoring started immediately for the Rangers, when Corey Seager demolished a 457-foot home run to dead-center field two batters into the game. The moonshot was the second-longest of Seager's career, trailing only a 464-foot homer he hit with the Dodgers on September 26, 2021.

“It’s pretty impressive. He hit that one well, [there’s] no getting around that,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s such a good hitter. You get accustomed to him hitting balls like that.”

It was also the longest home run hit by any player at Angel Stadium this season and tied for the fifth-longest by a visiting player at Angel Stadium since Statcast began tracking in 2015. In the process, Seager -- who also doubled in the seventh inning -- extended his hitting streak to a season-high 13 games, the fifth-longest streak of his career. His longest streak was 19 straight games in 2016 for the Dodgers.

After a so-so month of June (.709 OPS in 20 games), Seager has been scorching-hot since the calendar flipped to July. The Rangers’ shortstop has a 1.315 OPS in six games so far this month. Seager might not be at his outrageous 2023 level -- when he hit .327/.390/.623 with 33 home runs in the regular season and obliterated playoff pitchers with a 1.133 OPS and six home runs -- but he’s been plenty good with his .273/.352/.485 line.

Seager was hardly the only Rangers hitter to show up in a big way in Monday’s win. Rookie Wyatt Langford, who recorded four hits Sunday, had a multi-hit game and crushed his fifth home run 409 feet down the left-field line on Monday night.

After running a .574 OPS with one home run through the end of May (34 games), Langford has a .935 OPS and four home runs in 33 games since then.

Given Langford’s situation and trajectory, it’s downright incredible that he’s already producing this way in the Majors. It’s nearly a year to the day that the Rangers selected Langford fourth overall in the 2023 Draft.

After Langford helped lead Florida to a runner-up finish in the College World Series thanks to his 1.282 OPS and 21 home runs, Langford demolished Minor League pitching shortly after being drafted last year and forced his way onto this year’s Opening Day roster.

“He’s going to have some kind of career. He’s a special player that’s just getting better and better,” Bochy said. “I think he’ll tell you that he’s just getting more and more comfortable. You start playing every day in the big leagues when you were in college last year. That’s not easy. I just love the way that after the injury, he came back and reset and has been so solid.”

American League All-Star Marcus Semien also recorded his first multi-hit game since June 15 and drove in a pair of runs. Nathaniel Lowe also had three hits, making it three multi-hit games this month and his fifth in his past nine games. Seven Rangers hitters recorded a hit and helped push their run total to 22 across their last two games, the most Texas has scored in a two-game stretch this season.

“I think it’s just a matter of time with this offense,” Lowe said. “We’re poised to really make some things happen, so nobody in here is going to be surprised if we bust out a bunch of wins in a row or score a lot of runs.”

Texas’ four-game winning streak has propelled the Rangers to a 43-48 record -- putting them 5 1/2 games behind the Mariners in the AL West and seven games behind the Red Sox for the final Wild Card spot. If the Rangers keep playing the way they have been, those deficits could shrink even more as the Trade Deadline approaches and the season progresses.

“It’s not crunch time, but we understand that we need to start the push now,” Lowe said.