Texas Rangers: 5 obstacles Texas had to overcome to make the playoffs

#5 Corey Seager Hamstring Injury

This happened very early in the season. It was back on April 11th against the Kansas City Royals. Seager was off to a flaming hot start at the plate. He had a .359 batting average, with one home run, and four doubles. The play it happened it appeared that he was on his way to his first triple of the season. He went down with the injury and then was placed on the IL the next day. He would go on to miss the next month.

Texas was losing their best hitter, a good defender at short, and their best overall player. They could have went into the tank and really fell far behind Houston and Seattle. They did not. Josh Smith initially filled in at short, but then Ezequiel Duran stepped up and took over and provided the production that Texas was missing from Seager. Duran continued that hot hitting until the All-Star break. Texas instead of losing actually continued winning. They were 7-4 when he was placed on the IL and then were 26-16 when he came back off the IL.

The fact that Texas is playing into October is due partially to how Duran was able to fill in at short in Seager's absence and help to keep this team afloat during that month.

Next: The unit on this team that has held this team back