García gets day to 'reset' as Rangers continue offensive struggles

SAN FRANCISCO – For the first time this season, two-time All-Star Adolis García was not in manager Bruce Bochy’s starting lineup Saturday. Bochy wanted to give the struggling right fielder a mental break amid a 3-for-17 trip and a rough April overall.

At some point, he might have to rotate mental days off among a cadre of hitters who are all too often unable to deliver that one clutch hit the Rangers often need to support great work by the pitching staff and win.

Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Giants was a strong example.

With the game tied 2-2, the first two hitters on each side reached base in the ninth inning. The Rangers did not score, as Kyle Higashioka popped his sacrifice attempt into catcher Sam Huff’s glove, and right-hander Ryan Walker struck out Josh Smith and pinch-hitter Joc Pederson to strand the runners.

The Giants did execute their sacrifice in the bottom half, with Christian Koss bunting. Then, on Jacob Latz’s only pitch of the afternoon, switch-hitter Patrick Bailey poked a single to right, Heliot Ramos scored and the Giants celebrated the walkoff win.

Bochy struggles to find new ways of answering the same questions about his offense, which ranks last in the Majors with 84 runs.

“They came through in the ninth inning in the same situation we had,” Bochy said. “That was the difference in the game.”

Bochy chose this game to sit García despite the Giants throwing a left-hander, Robbie Ray, a sign of how lost García looked in Friday night’s win. Smith played right field instead, his seventh defensive position this season.

García is 14-for-77 in April, a .182 average. For the year he is hitting .209 with four homers and a .677 OPS.

“It’s fair to say he’s not seeing the ball well right now,” Bochy said. “He’s trying to get his timing down. That’s what he says -- he’s lost right now. So this one is probably a mental break, getting him to back off a little. He’s kind of getting caught in between and he’s got a couple of different swings going on, and I just want to give him a day to see if he can reset here.”

García had no issue with sitting.

“Today’s a day off. I’m kind of working on getting my body back,”García said through translator Raul Cardenas. “I haven’t had a day off since the season started.”

Asked if he thought he needed a mental break,García said, “Bochy is a very experienced coach and manager. He understands these things. He just wanted me to take that time off to get my mind back and come back fresh tomorrow.”

Texas scored both runs on sacrifice flies by Jake Burger, the first Ranger to record more than one in a game since Nick Solak in a 2021 game against the Mariners, another game in which the Rangers could not otherwise score and lost 3-2.

The Giants scored their first two runs on a fifth-inning single by Willy Adames, which ended Tyler Mahle’s scoreless streak at 20 innings. Mahle allowed eight hits, five more than in any of his first five starts.

Bochy said at some point the hitters need to support the pitchers, instead of the other way around. Like any pitcher who wants to be a good teammate, Mahle blamed himself for the loss, not the hitters.

“We were up 2-0 in the fifth,” he said. “So the offense did their jobs. I gave up two hits to what, the eight and eighth- and ninth-hole hitters [ahead of Adames’ two-run hit]? I just wasn’t making good pitches. I blame myself, obviously.”