5 things we learned on this Texas Rangers road trip

Leody Taveras continues to struggle

It was a not so good weekend for Taveras. He did have an RBI single in Saturday night's game. He also struggled on defense on Friday taking a bad route and then bobbling a ball leading to the Giants' only run of the game. His bat is still is not all the way there. This is a screenshot of one of his at-bats on Friday night.

When Taveras is hitting well that third and seventh pitch are ones that he can drive to the opposite field or pull down the line. Instead he fouled off the third pitch and the grounded out on the seventh pitch. It continues to be a second half struggle for Taveras. On this road trip Taveras was 2-23 with six strikeouts.

The answer when hitters are normally struggling is to bat them lower in the order, but Taveras already bats ninth for Texas. Texas has Martinez up currently, but will not have room for him once Jankowski comes back. I think the only thing Texas can do short of sending Taveras down is to just continue to ride with him and hope his bat wakes up and he can start contributing again. Just a reminder his batting average post All-Star break in 2022 was .231. His batting average post All-Star break in 2023 is .186. Chris Woodward and then Tony Beasley stuck with him last season. I do wonder if this continues how long of a leash will Bochy give Taveras as we go from August to September.

All in all it was a great road trip for the Rangers. They have won 70 games faster than any Rangers team in franchise history. They still lead the American League in run differential. They are still ahead of the Astros in the division. They are just rolling through the August schedule and now welcome an Angels team to Arlington that is seeing their playoff hopes disappear by the day.