{"id":315049,"date":"2026-05-30T05:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T05:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/315049\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T05:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T05:05:09","slug":"rangers-hammer-royals-with-old-school-offensive-formula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/315049\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers hammer Royals with old-school offensive formula"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers’ Ezequiel Duran runs to third base on way to scoring on a throwing error by Kansas City Royals second baseman Nick Loftin during the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/LM Otero)<\/p>\n

LM Otero\/AP Photo\/LM Otero<\/p>\n

ARLINGTON \u2014 If the summer is to be something more than just a long, painful countdown to trading away the last vestiges of the 2023 World Series champions, the Rangers<\/a> must follow Friday\u2019s formula.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In what became a 9-1 walkover of Kansas City, the Rangers played sharp defense, optimized an early run-scoring opportunity and then let guys with power slug. Even let newcomer Nicky Lopez, decidedly not a slugger, get in on the act<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It allowed the Rangers to reach early thresholds that automatically equal a win: They took an early lead and got to four runs. When they do that, they are 17-1, the best record in baseball for those parameters. You know, they just don\u2019t do it very frequently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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On Friday, they did it all in the first inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe applied pressure,\u201d said rejuvenated leadoff man Joc Pederson, who started the four-run first-inning rally with a walk and later hit his fourth homer of the week. \u201cWe got them to make a couple of mistakes and took advantage of them. It was probably one of our better innings of the whole year.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

And he made it sound so simple. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"photoLM Otero\/AP Photo\/LM Otero<\/p>\n

Though the Rangers later hit three homers, the four-run first was built on the elements of more fundamental baseball: Line drives, hustle and a heads-up baserunning play. Much of it came from Ezequiel Duran and Alejandro Osuna, the latter of whom was dropped from second in the lineup to seventh because Kansas City right-hander Stephen Kolek was actually harder on righties than lefties. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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After Duran singled home a pair of runs with a two-out liner back up the middle<\/a>, Osuna\u2019s hustle to first on what appeared to be a routine grounder helped the Rangers extend the inning and score a third run. His 29.3 feet per second sprint to first, the fastest by a Ranger this season, may have forced Nick Loftin to hurry his throw, which was wide of first. Duran, who had gone to third on Evan Carter\u2019s bloop double ahead of Osuna, scored. Carter went to third. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Then the Rangers put on an actual base-running play. And executed it. Osuna broke for second and stopped short to try to draw a throw to the bag while Carter broke for home. Future Hall of Fame catcher Salvador Perez threw the ball into center field. When Carter crossed the plate, the Rangers had a 4-0 lead. Bingo.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a young kid who always plays the game hard,\u201d manager Skip Schumaker said. \u201cHe is the exact type of player that I love, as far as what a Ranger should look like, in my opinion. He\u2019s a hard-nosed teammate who puts really good at-bats together, isn\u2019t afraid to pass the baton and doesn\u2019t try to do too much in big situations. He runs the bases the right way, asks questions, tries to learn and doesn’t think he knows it already.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Said Osuna of his role in the inning: \u201cWhen I hit the ball, the only thing I could do good is hustle to first base and try to put a little pressure on them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In other words: Put inning and the situation ahead of personal performance. Call it small ball. Call it run optimization. Or call it simply old-school baseball. It\u2019s a simple concept and one the Rangers have talked about at length this week as a potential addition to their offensive arsenal while they wait for Wyatt Langford and Corey Seager to hopefully rejoin the team. On that note, Langford will go on a rehab assignment. Seager might not be far behind him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe then the Rangers can try slugging first and asking questions later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meantime, they\u2019ve got to find ways to be more efficient with their run-scoring opportunities. It means team-first offense. On Friday, a guy with less than 300 MLB plate appearances understood the assignment. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can absolutely apply pressure,\u201d Osuna said. \u201cToday we came out with energy, and we want to play that way.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Rangers’ Ezequiel Duran runs to third base on way to scoring on a throwing error by Kansas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,89415,87907,89905,89898],"class_list":["post-315049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-tp-globe-life-field","tag-tp-arlington","tag-tp-joc-pederson","tag-tp-skip-schumaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}