Semien collects three hits.


Marcus Semien crushes his 23rd homer of the season.

It’s good to end it against the Angels, a team so bad it just got swept by the White Sox, a team so bad it just lost its one-hundred-twenty-first game of the season, the most in major league history.

The Angels are so bad, Marcus Semien had one of his best games of the season, going 3-for-5 with a home run, and two runs scored in a 5-2 win.

Back in early May, Semien went three games in a row where he collected three or more hits. At that point, he had had five such games in the first thirty-nine games the Rangers played, and he was hitting .286 with an OPS of .810. Then he disappeared. Since that time, he accomplished a three-hit game only four more times in one-hundred-twenty-one games, watching his average and OPS plummet to .236/.695, which is bench-player territory.

Finishing the season against the woeful Angels is a nice way to end on a high note. The Rangers are going to need the good Marcus Semien next season if they are going to harbor illusions of contending. Fortunately, they play the Angels early in April. 

Oh, the Angels now how the pleasure of boasting the longest post-season drought in the American League since Detroit clinched a playoff spot last night. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving team. They haven’t seen the post-season since 2014.

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