Odor walks and trots way into history books

ARLINGTON -- Last season, Rougned Odor walked just 32 times while playing in all 162 games for the Rangers. On Thursday, then, it was almost like he was showing off.
Texas' second baseman became the first in MLB history to walk five times in a game -- none of them intentional -- and also hit a home run, during a 17-8 win against the O's at Globe Life Park. Three others in history -- Hank Aaron, Mark McGwire and Edgar Martinez -- have collected five walks and homered in a game, but each of those drew at least one intentional walk, and none completed the feat in nine innings.
While intentional walks have only been a recorded statistic since 1955, Odor's five total walks also tied a club record.

"I don't know that I've ever seen that in a game," Texas manager Jeff Banister said. "It's about as perfect a night you can have as a hitter. [Odor] is the one that's been doing all the work. He's the one in the batter's box, adopting the mentality and philosophy, and doing the things we've challenged him with, and he's doing it tremendously."
Odor entered the game with 113 walks in 2,482 career plate appearances, meaning that coming into Thursday's game, it took him, on average, 110 plate appearances to accrue five walks.
In addition to the five free passes that brought his season walks total to 27 in 80 games, Odor finished with three RBIs and three runs scored.
The 24-year-old Odor played a role in Thursday's youth movement: 13 of the Rangers' 17 runs were driven in by players age 25 or younger, something that bodes well for the future.
"It's fun to watch," Banister said. "We talk about the development of these guys. It's great to envision what these guys are going to be, but what they're doing right now, it's nice. It's part of their development. It's why we decided to go in the direction we're going this year. These guys are getting on-the-job training, and they're doing it very well."

Jurickson Profar, 25, drove in four runs to push his season RBI total to 56, just five behind the 24-year-old Joey Gallo, for the Rangers' team lead.
On this night though, the center of the stage belonged to Odor, who became just the 14th player in history with three RBIs and three runs scored during a 1-for-1 night at the plate. He is the only one of those 14 to walk five times while accomplishing the feat, and he is just the third player to have five walks and three RBIs in a game.
It capped a solid day all-around for Odor, who prior to the game was named Texas' Player of the Month for July after he hit .341 with a .625 slugging percentage in 24 games, hit six home runs, drove in 12 and scored 18 runs.
The Rangers, and Odor, are definitely looking forward to more days like Thursday to come.