Jung sparks Rangers' offense with a HR in his return to Majors

ARLINGTON -- This win was brought to you by the Round Rock Express.

Not quite literally, but the Rangers have made a ton of roster moves since the return from the All-Star break, and a number of those recently called up from Triple-A Round Rock made an impact in Monday night’s 7-2 win over the A’s to open the American League West matchup at Globe Life Field.

Cody Freeman collected his first hit and RBI with a double in the fifth inning, Michael Helman hit his first MLB homer immediately afterwards and -- perhaps the biggest news -- Josh Jung got the scoring started with a leadoff solo homer in the third inning.

Jung finished the day 2-for-2 with a walk and three runs scored.

“First of all, it's good to have [Jung] back,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “It's not easy to accept what happened going down there, trying to get him reset. I'm sure there was some confidence shaking. That’s the human part of this game. He went down there to work, and we just said at this point we need him up here. We need him and his presence. I thought it was big for him to have a great start.”

Jung was sent down to Triple-A Round Rock on July 2, his first option since his MLB debut on Sept. 9, 2022. The move came after he struggled to a .158/.208/.221 slash line in June.

Jung, a 2019 first-round Draft pick (No. 8 overall) by the Rangers, admitted that June was probably the worst month of his entire baseball life. He’s been through adversity before, including a number of injuries through his time in the Minors and Majors. But this is the first time he’s ever actually struggled at the plate.

When you looked at it like that, it makes sense that he needed that reset. Then, Jung recorded a hit in seven of his eight games for the Express from July 8-20, including two home runs, two doubles, four RBIs and a .410 slugging percentage.

Bochy said postgame that even if Jung doesn’t see it now, he’ll look back on this being a good thing for what he hopes is a long and healthy career.

He may have already seen that.

“I was just trying to take advantage of the opportunity to go down there and grow and figure it out,” Jung said. “That's it. So, I mean, there was only one option and that was to figure it out. That's all we were trying to do. I’ve been through [that adversity] now. The only thing we can do every single day is try to grow.”

Overall, Jung has hit .237 this season, with a .648 OPS, eight home runs, one triple, 10 doubles and 35 RBIs in 75 games for Texas. That just wasn’t enough at the time for a team that desperately needed to get back into contention.

The Rangers sent him down in an attempt to reset, hoping to see the All-Star version of the third baseman when he returned.

“He handled it like a pro,” said president of baseball operations Chris Young. “I think he is a pro. He attacked it the way he's attacked his whole career, whether it's been injury or any adversity he's faced. He puts his head down, gets to work, and he tries to find solutions. He knows how good he can be, and he's committed to doing whatever it takes to be great, and it's one of the reasons we love him.”

For Jung, it has been three weeks of constant work with Cody Atkinson, the Rangers' Minor League hitting director. It was breaking it down and building everything back up and trying to build on that each and every day.

“How are we going to grow today?” became the motto for Jung as he worked to get back to the player he knows he can be.

The results spoke for themselves on Monday. Now it’s about building on that every day going forward.

When asked if he feels more confident now than he did three weeks ago, Jung just laughed.

“That’s a loaded question,” he said after thinking for a second. “Yeah, I'm convicted in what I'm going to do when I step into the box. Put all the results to the side. Just be convicted in that every single day. I think that'll turn things around.”