The Texas Rangers had their highs and their lows this past week. The Rangers did manage to take the weekend series against the Oakland Athletics and continued to show they can win games on the road.
Texas didn’t do so well at home though, losing their last series with Houston this year. There were two good things that did happen that are worth noting for fans to watch as the season wraps up.
First off is Adolis Garcia tying the club home run record for rookies with 30 home runs on the season. Garcia just needs one more to break the record and possibly seal the AL Rookie of the Year race.
In other big news, Jose Trevino was nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award, which is a huge honor.
Texas Rangers Weekly Report: Whos Hot
Adolis Garcia
Adolis Garcia tied Pete Incaviglia’s record for home runs hit by a Rangers Rookie this past Tuesday against the Astros.
Wikipedia just needs to update him as the Houston Astros “Owner”, as Garcia has 7 home runs against them this year. According to Chris Halicke of SINow, Garcia’s OPS against the Astros is 1.122 which is pretty solid if you ask me.
https://twitter.com/FanSided/status/1437945114664394752?s=20
Aaron Zavala
We all remember the Rangers drafting Jack Leiter with their 2021 first round pick, but don’t sleep on 2021 second rounder Aaron Zavala. Zavala, an outfielder, got his first pro home run ever for the Low-A Down East Wood Ducks this past week.
We will probably be seeing a lot more of these as his career continues with the Rangers. He should also be a fast mover through the minors as a relatively polished hitter.
Texas Rangers Weekly Report: Who’s Not Hot
A.J. Alexy
A.J. Alexy didn’t have a good night on Tuesday as the Astros got six runs off of him in three innings. To be fair, the game Tuesday was kind of weird as the two-game stint with the Diamondbacks screwed up the starting rotation, forcing Alexy to be Spencer Howard’s tandem.
Glenn Otto
Back-to-back bad starts for Otto against the A’s and the Astros after dominating the latter in his debut. Growing pains are expected for young players, and we hope Otto is just stuck in a rut.
Afterthoughts
With Willie Calhoun returning to the lineup this Wednesday, it’s great to see him back on the field and off the IL. However, he’s on a very short leash.
While he was on the IL, the Rangers have seen Curtis Terry, Yohel Pozo, Yonny Hernandez and DJ Peters emerge, and all of them could easily take his spot.
Calhoun will probably be back next year, though, because he is one of the better hitters on the club. But if he starts out slowly, the Rangers might just trade him and promote one of their outstanding outfield prospects waiting for the call-up to the major leagues. We can’t wait that much longer for Calhoun to fully blossom, injuries or not.
Also, congratulations to Jose Trevino on being nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award on Wednesday. That is a huge honor for any player in baseball and Jose said he is “Honored and Humbled to even be put in the same sentence as ‘The Great One'” on Twitter.
Texas Rangers upcoming schedule:
September 17-19 home vs. Chicago White Sox
September 20-22 at New York Yankees
Texas Rangers 3-point checklist to conclude the season
These 3 things must happen for the Texas Rangers in September if we want to call the 2021 season a relative success overall.