Seager's resurgent July spurs Rangers' 6-run 5th 

ARLINGTON -- Earlier this week, Rangers manager Chris Woodward joked with his coaches during a staff meeting that shortstop Corey Seager is most comfortable when things are tough.

Woodward has seen it firsthand throughout Seager’s career, both up close when he was a third-base coach with the Dodgers from 2016-18, and from afar since becoming the Rangers’ manager in ‘19.

Now reunited in Texas, Woodward saw it once again, when Seager launched a 398-foot homer deep into the right-field stands to drive a 6-5 win over the Twins on Friday night at Globe Life Field.

“I just get a feeling with Corey and big moments, with the game on the line,” Woodward said. “Everybody else around him could be pulling their hair out and he's just like, ‘I'm just gonna keep the same.’ Every time that guy's in the batter's box, I feel like he's gonna do something good for us, especially with guys on base and in big moments late in the game. I've seen it too many times, personally.”

Seager’s three-run homer capped a six-run fifth inning, when the Rangers flipped a 3-0 deficit into a 6-3 lead at the time. It was the most runs Texas had scored in a single inning since a six-run fifth on May 28 at Oakland.

Seager struggled during the month of June, with a .222/.304/.394 slash line, but he has been resurgent in July after his 2-for-3 performance against Minnesota. He is 9-for-28 (.321) with two homers, seven RBIs and just one strikeout in seven games since the calendar flipped.

Woodward said he sees it as an encouraging sign as both of his star middle infielders, including Marcus Semien, hit a groove offensively at the same time.

“Semien has been good for a while and Corey is starting to swing a bat well, hitting the ball hard,” Woodward said. “I think he was getting a little unlucky out there. He's been pretty steady in my opinion, rough stretches here and there where he wasn't hitting the ball as hard as he normally does, but for the most part, he's been pretty steady. And now you're starting to see the balls come off the bat like that.”

Woodward said before the game that getting swept by the Orioles earlier in the week felt like a gut punch for his club. It was the first time the Rangers had been swept in a three-game set in 2022 to complete a losing road trip. So he wanted to see a sense of urgency from his squad to start the 10-game homestand before the All-Star break.

It started out rough, with three fielding errors in the first three innings against the Twins, but the Rangers found a way to push through. First with starter Jon Gray battling through 5 1/3 innings and then with the game-breaking fifth inning.

“The first couple of innings were sloppy,” Seager said. “We didn't do a whole lot of things right. The only thing I think that kind of went right was Jon Gray, who kind of kept us in that. He really battled and kind of really slowed that game down for us, and kept us in it to where we had the big inning. And then it snowballed good from there.”

Woodward added that these were the kind of games he challenged his team to win following the sweep in Baltimore. He wanted them to collectively step up, pass the torch offensively and keep the momentum shifted in their favor, whether it’s the heavy hitters like Seager and Semien or the nine-hole hitter in the lineup.

“[Seager and Semien are] both trending the right way,” Woodward said. “I knew it would just be a matter of time. But I think it's more for the whole team. We’re just trying to be a little bit more consistent. Especially when it comes to those big moments. However we got there, how are we going to out execute [against] the other team?”