'It's time': Rangers trying to shake things up to find offensive mojo

MILWAUKEE -- Rangers general manager Chris Young was clear on Wednesday morning: The club is running out of time to really get this ship turned around.

“It's time,” he said. “We can't sit back and wait and hope that it comes together. It's time for us to get going. It's time for us offensively to perform like the team that we know we can be. I have great confidence in all of these players. We just haven't performed to the level that we were expecting and the reality is that we need to get going here.

“We've dug a little bit of a hole. We can come back from it. I have, a lot of confidence that we will, but it's time for us to get going."

In turn, the Rangers optioned utilityman Ezequiel Duran to Triple-A Round Rock, recalling outfielder Derek Hill in his place ahead of the series finale against the Brewers on Wednesday. Young noted that it’s a performance-based game, and Duran simply wasn’t where they wanted him to be at this point.

“We need to start seeing some results,” Young said of the offense as a whole. “We’re going to try and inject some life into this offense. It's time for us offensively to perform like the team that we know we can be.”

The good thing is that the offense on Wednesday looked as good as it had all season, collecting 10 hits -- including back-to-back homers from Nathaniel Lowe and Jonah Heim, as well as a single from Hill in his return to the big league club.

The bad thing is that it didn’t matter in the end. Milwaukee handed Texas its first extra-inning loss of the season in walk-off fashion, 6-5 in 10 innings.

This is the fourth time the Rangers have been swept this year, following series in Colorado, Philadelphia and Seattle. Texas has only been swept on the road.

“We were in all three [of these games],” said manager Bruce Bochy. “Little things got us today. We did swing the bats better and that’s always a great sign but [the Brewers] are good and they play well. But we could have won every one of these games, we feel like.”

Though the offense only broke out in one inning -- the Rangers still scored more runs on Wednesday (five) than they did in the previous two games of the sweep combined (four) – it was still unable to produce much of anything after that.

At this point, the Rangers are desperately searching for answers, if the switcheroo between Duran and Hill is any indication. Upgrades appear to be coming internally, at least at the moment. Anything that happens in the weeks leading up to the Trade Deadline seems yet to be determined.

“It'll be performance-driven,” Young said. “The reality is that anybody who is performing in Triple-A, there will be an opportunity here and we're gonna go with the team that helps us win games, the guys who are hot. Offensively, we haven't been at the level that we're capable of. There's some guys that haven't performed to the extent that we think they can, and if that doesn't change, we're gonna go with the hot hand because we were trying to play and win. Whoever is performing will earn the opportunity and we'll put them in the lineup and see if we can spark our team.”

Part of what makes Bochy a Hall of Fame manager is his ability to manage a clubhouse and manage his players. He’s always preached turning the page to the next day, because you have no other option in this game.

That being said, the clubhouse is also aware of where they are in the season and what the record is. There has to be a sense of urgency in getting this thing back on track sooner rather than later.

“I think we're aware of that, right?” said starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, who gave up five runs in seven innings of the loss. “With where we are, we're gonna need to make sure that we win the division. We're going to come out and we're going to win ballgames. To me, there's no longer just winning in the series. We have to start sweeping series, and we definitely can't lose series like this. There's still some time left, but we still got to make sure that we go out there and play our best ball. I still feel like we haven't clicked on all cylinders yet. There's definitely time for it.”