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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Let the fun begin.
With Elvis Andrus healing a tense hamstring and some of their young lead players hitting clumsy offensive numbers, the Rangers added a wild card to the mix on Wednesday: Willie Calhoun, who finished second.
In his first major game of the season, Calhoun jumped Wednesday on a 1-2 curved ball against Jorge Lopez of Kansas City and propelled him into the stands for a two-run lead in a 6-1 defeat. That put an end to a series of five consecutive defeats, the worst of the season.
The next hitter: Nomar Mazara.
If it was not the message, the symbolism was pretty clear: follow that, Nomar.
The Rangers began the week by talking about the need for their troubled young beginners, namely Rougned Odor and Mazara, to get things done. When Andrus suffered mild tension on the right hamstring on Tuesday (the Rangers do not think he will be missing more than the minimum 10 days required to be on the wounded list), this gave them another chance to hammer the urgency of the situation. their message. If these young people do not do it, they will look at others.
Enter Calhoun. With a shot.
"It was really cool to see Willie launch us somehow," said manager Chris Woodward about the first round of Calhoun. "I saw this swing, I saw the lightning that he has in his hands, that put a spring in everyone's reach."
Oh, by the way, the message seemed to sound too. Mazara was eliminated in his first game but had shots in each of his next four games, equaling his career record. Mazara is heating up. He has eight hits in his last 14 games to make his OPS season go from .700 to .756 in four games.
Do not confuse any mistake: Calhoun deserved his promotion. He had a 15-game losing streak at Triple-A Nashville and had his batting average hit 0.304 with two hits on Tuesday. He had a success rate of 973.
Andrus's injury simply allowed the Rangers to create an opportunity in another difficult circumstance.
"Willie was Nashville's best player," said general manager Jon Daniels. "We have some nonsense here and he deserves the opportunity, we'll see how it goes and evaluate things when Elvis comes back."
Woodward said he planned to give Calhoun a significant playing time at the moment. Joey Gallo will have the vast majority of the time in the middle of the field. Off-road and DH corner positions will be roughly split between Calhoun, Mazara, Shin-Soo Choo and Hunter Pence. Choo and Pence are both 36 years old. You can do the math to find out where they are in the long-term reconstruction plans.
The Rangers must decide where, how and if Mazara and Calhoun fit into the short-term plans. In his fourth year, Mazara's offensive abilities remain deep, but his average output. His inferior defense makes him an enigma.
Calhoun started the day with just 145 appearances in the majors for his career. It goes without saying that the Rangers will have looked at it for a long time this season. The more they can see, the better the data on which to base decisions.
"I do not want him to think that he has to dominate for the next 10 days," Woodward said. "I want him to know that the cream is on the top, if he's sent in about 10 days, he'll deserve to come back and he'll do it, but I wanted him here."
"I will not try to put too much pressure on myself," said Calhoun. "It means a lot to me to be here, I feel good, the best I've felt since 2017. But now I have to play the same game as me."
In Nashville, the game he plays is to crush the ball. That's exactly what he did during his very first fight in the big leagues. If he does it regularly over the next 10 days, the Rangers will have interesting discussions.
On Wednesday, Willie Calhoun started the conversation. And Nomar Mazara also had a few things to say.
This subject is missing your voice.
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