This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

HOUSTON -- Marcus Semien was batting leadoff for all 162 regular-season Rangers lineups. For 119 games, Corey Seager hit right behind him in the two-hole.

Bruce Bochy has no intention of changing things up 10 games into the postseason, but the Rangers no doubt are between a rock and a hard place going into Game 6 of the American League Championship Series. 

The two middle infielders were signed to mega deals worth nearly half a billion dollars combined entering the 2022 season. Seager and Semien came to Texas with the intention of competing for a World Series. But as the series returns to Houston for its final games, their troubles at the plate are one reason the Rangers stand one game from elimination in the ALCS.

Semien is now 3-for-21 with no extra-base hits and no RBIs in the ALCS. Seager is 5-for-22 with one RBI, a solo homer in Game 4. 

Both were All-Stars this year. Seager will likely finish top three in AL MVP voting. But none of that matters if the Rangers can’t keep their season alive on the backs of the two veteran middle infielders. 

Bochy said ahead of Game 4 that Seager’s timing was just a bit off following the four-day layoff after Texas swept Baltimore in the ALDS. But Seager doesn’t often slump for long. After going hitless in Game 3, he followed with the homer in Game 4 and a double in Game 5. 

“They’re going after them,” Bochy said of Houston’s pitchers. “They’re pitching to him, he’s just still off with the timing. That’s what I see. They’re not pitching around him or anything, so it’s just a matter of getting his timing back. Corey is so good, that could happen tonight. Some guys will carry that [slump] with them, but not Corey. That’s not the case.”

Semien, on the other hand, is hitting .159 this postseason and struggling to find any semblance of rhythm following one of the better offensive seasons of his career in which he hit .276 with an .826 OPS.  

But an off-day in the postseason is still a day to work on things, Semien said on Saturday. And he went to the batting cage with a lot to work on. 

“I mean I've definitely been hitting it in the air, just way too high,” Semien said, almost jokingly. “But that's what Houston does a good job of, that's why they're in this position, because they stick to the game plan. Every team has a game plan to get us out. It's all about executing. For us, it's all about making the adjustments. The adjustments that I make tend to be ones that help me see the ball well. And it's about getting in the cage and understanding what they're doing and how do I hit these pitches hard and that's what I'm going to work on.”

The struggles of the franchise cornerstones are not the only reasons that Texas has fallen behind, 3-2, in the ALCS. The starting pitching struggled in Games 3 and 4 in Arlington, and a blown save in Game 5 sticks out. But the Rangers need their top two hitters to start producing. Plain and simple. 

“Yeah, well, it's critical to our offense, no getting around it,” Bochy said. “They're our main guys, when you look at that along with [Adolis García]. They're experienced in their ability to hit the ball.

“I think you look at yesterday [Game 5], we had some chances there, and we had the right guys up. It's not always going to happen, but does make life easier, trust me, when they're going well and getting those big hits. ... Yeah, we need those guys to put runs on the board.”