Grossman continues to hurt southpaws as Rangers' bats come alive

MIAMI -- When asked about what adjustments the Rangers’ offense needed to make, manager Bruce Bochy replied with one word.

Confidence.

“We need to get that back, to have more swagger out there,” he said. “I think we’ve lost a little bit of that.”

Texas found the “swagger” it needed to put up four runs against Marlins southpaw Ryan Weathers en route to a 7-0 win at loanDepot park.

The defending champs had struggled against lefties coming into Saturday's game, ranking No. 20 in MLB with a .233 batting average. They hit 14 homers despite having the 11th-most plate appearances against lefties to end the month of May.

June got off to a better start.

Robbie Grossman opened the scoring in the third inning with a double off an 85.4 mph sweeper, allowing Andrew Knizner to score. Bochy attributes Grossman’s hit to opening the floodgates.

Grossman, a switch-hitter, was acquired in a trade with the White Sox on May 8 in order to address production issues against lefties. Last season, he slashed .309/.416/.536 against southpaws, and he is hitting .303 off them this year.

“I just try to be myself,” Grossman said. “I know I’m a good player and I know what I do well and I just try to stick to that.”

Shortly after Grossman's double, Adolis García drove a hit into right field to score Corey Seager on a sacrifice fly.

“García battled, he had two strikes on, he’s trying to find his way to play but he got the job done,” Bochy said.

Seager was a large participant in the Rangers’ offense, going 3-for-4 with a double. The shortstop reached base safely for the 24th consecutive game and recorded a hit in 14 straight.

With the newfound energy, the Rangers continued to extend the lead in the fourth. Josh Smith singled into right field, and a throwing error by Marlins right fielder Jesús Sánchez allowed Wyatt Langford to score.

Knizner returned to the plate and hit a sacrifice fly into right field to plate Smith for the fourth run of the game. Knizner hasn't gotten much playing time this season -- he had appeared in just 19 games before Saturday -- however he showed that he’s ready to come out and contribute when needed.

“I was happy for Knizner because he hasn’t gotten a lot of playing time, but for him to go out there and have a game like that when he hadn’t played in a while, that’s impressive,” Bochy said. “It does elevate your club [when] you need somebody to pick you up, especially when you’re sputtering a little bit.”

The Rangers’ production bled into the final third of the game. After Grossman delivered again with an RBI single in the seventh, Langford hit a line drive into left field to score two more runs in the ninth.

“Honestly I wasn’t able to watch much of what our offense did or how we produced those runs,” Rangers starter Michael Lorenzen said. “I just knew I was given a lot of high fives in the dugout.”

Lorenzen kept the Marlins scoreless over 6 1/3 frames. He tied his season-high with seven strikeouts and allowed five hits on the day. The righty found his way out of a couple jams and battled his way through the Miami lineup.

Following the game, Texas’ team batting average against lefties jumped to .240; they will get the opportunity to continue raising that number in the series finale against Miami southpaw Trevor Rogers.