Statistically, the Texas Rangers still have a chance to make the postseason this year and defend their World Series title. But a lot will need to happen.
With the regular season coming to a close at the end of the month, each game is important for the Rangers.
The defending champs are currently in third place in the American League West division. A lot can happen in the next 18 games for the Rangers.
One good sign to note is that Marcus Semien has had a good stretch at the plate recently, and that’s something he will need to consistently do if the Rangers want a shot at the postseason.
He went 2-for-5 at the plate with a home run, two RBI, and a stolen base. Semien led the game off with a bomb, which marked his 19th long ball of the season. It also was his sixth leadoff homer of the season and the 30th leadoff homer of his career.
After struggling at the plate toward the end of August and the first two days of September, Semien has locked in and turned things around.
Marcus Semien Coming Out Of Slump
Before going on his hitting streak, he was 1-for-26 at the plate. Struggling like that can take a toll on a hitter, but Semien knows how to battle through adversity and he’s the type of player who when he’s in a slump, it won’t be for long.
Through 141 games this season. Semien is hitting .238 with 67 RBI and 88 runs scored. Though the Rangers aren’t in talks of postseason play, they have played some of their best baseball of the season recently, and our MLBbro has been an integral part of the team’s success.
Semien has established himself as one of the best overall players in the game. And there’s no question that he’s one of the best leadoff hitters in the game as well.
The three-time all-star has blossomed into an impactful player since entering the league in 2013. Texas sought to acquire in with hopes of putting together a World Series team, and that’s what they did.
Now the question is, can the Rangers get back to that level of baseball?
With Semien in the lineup, there’s always a good chance that your team will be in a position to win games.
Since the start of September, the Rangers have won six of their last eight games and they have a tough schedule ahead of them.
They will have an opportunity to gain some ground in the division with two upcoming series against the Seattle Mariners. If the Rangers can win both of those series, that could put them in a position to be in second place and based on how the Houston Astros perform, Texas could sneak into first.
The Rangers will just need to control what they can control and continue to play good baseball throughout the remainder of the season and Semien will continue to go out there and play hard and make sure his team is in a good position to win ball games.
One of the MLBbros that had an eventful night was hometown guy, Marcus Semien. He represented himself, the Texas Rangers and fans as MLBbro.com reporter Malik Wright captured on the field, while predicting a big hit, which Semien came through with.
Impressive for our MLBbro despite the changes going on before the game…
First he batted in an unfamiliar spot in game hitting LAST after leading off the last 316 games for the Texas Rangers.
Then he became a last-minute replacement as starter at second base for Jose Altuve.
He was solid at the plate going 1-2 with a run scored. He was also involved in starting a silky smooth 4-6-3 double play as well.
Texas Rangers Have To Wake Up Over Last 62 Games Of MLB Season
But now it’s back to business as the Texas Rangers find themselves in a division race all of a sudden. Despite being 48-52 as of this writing, the Rangers are only four games behind the AL West-leading Houston Astros. With the combination of both teams on losing streaks and Texas winning two straight…Let the playoff chase start!
A major reason that the Rangers were able to collect their second win was Semien. With the Rangers down 1-0 in the third inning, our MLBbro tied things up with a home run into the left field seats on Monday night…
After suffering through a huge slump just before the All-Star Game, all of a sudden, Semien has found his stroke and is reminding everyone why he is a legitimate force to be reckoned with.
His 14th Bro Bomb extended his on-base streak to 13 games which includes a hitting slash of .313/.431/.542, three homers, two doubles, ten walks, ten runs and seven RBI.
For the Texas Rangers to have a chance to defend their title in 2024, Marcus Semien will have to continue this trend upward on the offensive end. As one of the better defensive second basemen in baseball, he along with Corey Seager will make some serious noise in September. If Texas does find their way back to the World Series, Semien has shown he can rise to the occasion when the lights get bright…
As of this writing, our MLBbro, Marcus Semien is batting .241 with 14 homers (Ranked 55th) and 52 RBI (Ranked 38th) with an OPS of .708 and plenty of time to get hot.
Over the past few seasons, Marcus Semien has established himself as one of the top players in the MLB. And he has the accolades to show for it. Semien is a two-time All-Star, World Series champion, Gold Glove winner, and a two-time Silver Slugger winner. ThaAll Postst’s pretty impressive right there.
He has become a household name around the league. But there’s something that stands out about him.
While most professional athletes have a strong following on social media, Semien does not. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t have a following at all because he’s not on social media.
That’s right, not Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, none of that. So why is it that he’s not on social media?
He had a sit down recently with fellow MLBbro Mookie Betts and spoke briefly about not being on social media.
How Come Marcus Semien Is Not On Social Media?
Semien made an appearance on Betts’ podcast, ‘On Base With Mookie Betts’, and the two talked about everything from being an All-Star to going to NBA games.
The two had an entertaining conversation, with one of the topics briefly covered surrounding Semien not having any social media accounts.
Betts did not beat around the bush and simply asked Semien, “You don’t have any social media, why is that?”
Semien Says Social Media Is More Negative Than Positive
Semien mentioned he had a Facebook account back in the day, but he went on to talk about how he saw more negative than positive as a pro athlete when Instagram came out.
He alluded to earlier in his career when he was playing for the Oakland Athletics and talked about times when he wasn’t playing well at all and when he would hear all of that negative noise it made him worse, and he just didn’t want to see those comments where people were talking bad about him.
Semien spent six seasons with the Athletics and during that time he was still trying to establish himself as a player and figure out his identity.
During those six seasons, he hit .256 with 107 home runs, 345 RBI, and 61 stolen bases.
Now those are some impressive numbers right there, but as Semien stated, there were times when he would go through slumps, and it seemed as if nothing was going right.
It’s during those times when you see what you are really made of. Are you going to just fold under pressure, or will you rise above and overcome the adversity?
Marcus Semien Keeps Getting Better Each Season
Semien did not fold under the pressure and that’s a big reason why he’s in the position he’s in today. Going back to the conversation Semien had with Betts, he did say that his wife has social media and he said maybe one day he’ll get on social media.
If that does happen it will be interesting to see how he manages his social media. For the most part, Semien does a good job of staying out of the spotlight.
But when he’s on that field, he does not shy away from the bright lights.
Aaron Judge once again reigns supreme over the baseball world, earning the top spot in Week 10 of our #HighFive list, thanks to his current 32-game on base streak (that he shares with shortstop and teammate Anthony Volpe) and being named May’s American League Player of the Month.
1. Aaron Judge
On Wednesday night Aaron Judge extended his on-base streak to 31-games in emphatic fashion: not by way of his normal 400ft plus home runs, but with a bases clearing triple to help his Yankees win their 7th game in a row.
The current league leader in home runs, OPS and slugging percentage has hits in 12 of his last 13 games entering Thursday, and is slashing .417/.548/1.042 with four bombs, 15 RBI and two stolen bases in his last seven games
The highlight for Judge this week came last weekend when he returned to his hometown Bay Area to take on San Francisco.
A few offseasons ago, it was falsely reported that Judge would be signing with the Giants, so their fans welcomed him with a chorus of boos.
He responded in the best way possible, homering three times in the first two games and driving in six RBI for the series.
This weekend Judge’s Yankees will take on Mookie Betts and the Dodgers.
2. “Black” Jack Flaherty
Jack Flaherty pulled out his Ace card to shut the World Series Champion Texas Rangers down and earn the two spot on our #HighFive list.
He gave up little to no hard contact in his five shutout innings, surrendering just two hits, no walks and striking out four. Flaherty exited the game after just 60 pitches due to a stiff back, reportedly. He should be ready for his next start.
“It’s weird how it works out,” said Flaherty. ‘I got two extra days. I am not going for another week with two off days. We will see how I wake up tomorrow, but I feel good about it.”
If all goes well, that next start will be Tuesday against C.J. Abrams and the Washington Nationals.
3. Marcus “Stro Show” Stroman
Marcus Stroman capped off one of the best months of his career with another strong outing in a win over the San Francisco Giants.
Stroman went 7.1 last Friday night, allowing two runs on six hits. That lowered his ERA to 1.91 for the month and also brought his opponents’ batting average to .198. He finished May with a 3-1 record.
Stroman continues to be a reliable piece in a Yankees starting rotation that has the best ERA in the Majors. He has gone at least five innings in each of his 12 starts this year. He takes the mound Thursday night as his Yankees look to complete a sweep over the Minnesota Twins.
4. Marcus Semien
After missing his first game in 349 consecutive starts, Marcus Semien got right back to business this week, grinding out a six-game hitting streak and earning a spot on the #HighFive for the third time this year.
A few weeks ago, Semien collided with Adolis Garcia in the outfield. Garcia missed the next few games to recover but the Ironman mentality that Semien has carried with him throughout his career would not let him miss any time.
That is until his manager Bruch Bochy forced him to take a day off last week.
“It is not something I wanted to do at all,” Semien told MLBbro.com. “But we had an off day the next day. The rest had me feeling good and ready to go for the rest of the year.”
Since his return to the lineup, he is slashing .360/.484./.520 with six walks, three of which came in one game and one home run, which was the 28th leadoff Bro bomb of his career.
5. Corey Julks
Corey Julks is making the most of his opportunity in his first few weeks on the South Side of Chicago. He’s played 15 games since being picked up off waivers from the Astros.
Over that span he is hitting .320 with a .404 on base percentage and is currently riding an eight-game hitting streak he will look to continue Thursday night and over the weekend against the Red Sox.
Over the last two seasons, Marcus Semien has suited up and hit the field for the Texas Rangers on a consistent basis.
He appeared in 349 consecutive games until May 29, when he was given the day off. That might have been exactly what he needed.
The two-time All-Star was 1-for-20 at the plate in the five games leading up to his off day, not a performance to expect from Semien.
But, he has seen a lot more production at the plate since returning from his off day. In the four games since his return, he went 7-for-14 during that stretch with a home run.
That’s the hitting the Rangers expect to see out of the two-time Silver Slugger Award winner.
Semien is that player who will go out and play if he’s the only one out there on that field. That’s just how much he loves the game.
If it’s up to him, he would play through injuries too, and he did just that. On May 18 he collided with right fielder Adolis García, trying to catch a popup.
“He’s been playing banged up. That’s a pretty good collision out there in right field, and he knows it’s time to try to get this thing cleared up, freshen up a little bit,” manager Bruce Bochy said.
The collision wasn’t anything serious, but it did leave the second baseman a little bruised up, and that could have affected his performance at the plate.
When Bochy decided to give Semien that day off, it was clear that he would not be playing at any point.
“He doesn’t need to bring his spikes out here,” Bochy said. “I don’t want him swinging. I want him to take a complete day off.”
“It was mutual. We talked,” Bochy said. “Now we’ve had conversations the last two or three days, Marcus was being Marcus then, but he agrees that it’s a good time to take a day.”
Against the Detroit Tigers, he hit his 10th home run of the season in the opening game of the three-game series.
In the lead-off spot, Semien has that ability to set the tone of the game and he can do it with just one swing of the bat. Something he has done on numerous occasions.
Since joining the Rangers, Semien has made an impact in Arlington and played a key role to the 2023 World Series champions.
When Semien is on point in all aspects of the game, good things tend to happen.
During his last two seasons with the Rangers, he has hit more than 25 home runs and that is something he can accomplish again this year.
The power is there and he can hit for average too. Opposing pitchers know they can’t make any mistake to Semien, because they know that if they do make a mistake, he will make them pay.
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