It’s not quite a rare as a blue moon but the Rangers did something they haven’t done in a while. They won two in a row.
In fact, their longest winning streak this disappointing season is just four in a row. So, as insignificant as a two-game winning streak might seem, they are halfway to their longest consecutive win streak of 2022.
They pulled off this feat of two-game sustained excellence twice in July, in fact.
Now, they face the woeful Oakland Athletics, who are lugging around the worst record in the American League, for four games. They have a green and golden opportunity to extend their win streak to three games, or more. But Rangers fans have seen all too well how the Rangers perform when they are supposed to win.
But this two-game streak comes on the strength of the Rangers bats. They came alive the last two games, piling on hits when they need them. The most thrilling part was, it wasn’t the result of home runs. It was actual, bona fide baseball. And the offense was lead by their first baseman once again.
Nathanial Lowe has quietly become the Rangers offensive leader. Yesterday, he went 2-for-3 with two doubles and a walk, scored a run and drove one in. He’s hitting .287, a team high (Leody Taveras is hitting .293 but doesn’t have nearly enough at-bats to count), with an OPS of .801, just a few clicks behind Corey Seager.
After yesterday, Lowe has gotten on base twenty games in a row.
While he has been the Rangers best hitter this year, he is still middle of the road in most offensive categories among major league firstbase man. Fourteenth out of twenty-five (those with enough at-bats) to qualify in OPS. Seventeenth in RBIs. Twelfth in OBP. That is brought up not to disparage Lowe but to point out how far the Rangers offense has to go before it can officially call itself competitive.
All in all, this has been a successful season for Lowe. He is one of the few Rangers to be building on success and moving in the right direction.
Lowe leads this suddenly-out-of-its-coma offense on its quest for a three-game winning streak.
If they get that, there’s no telling how far the Rangers could go. Maybe even four games.
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