WEST SACRAMENTO -- Corey Seager and Marcus Semien signed with the Rangers entering the 2022 season, combining for a pair of contracts worth half a billion dollars to create the club’s middle infield of the future.
Since 2022, the two of them have played a combined 508 together, good for 81.7% of Rangers contests, with Seager’s slew of injuries over the years leading to games where Semien stands alone.
At Sutter Health Park on Friday night, the Rangers took the field without Seager or Semien for the first time since Sept. 4, 2024 against the Yankees at Globe Life Field. Since the two joined the club in 2022, that's the only regular-season game with both out of the lineup.
Until Friday.
Semien has been on the injured list since Aug. 22 with a foot fracture, his first trip to the IL since 2017. Seager was placed on the injured list ahead of Friday’s game after undergoing an appendectomy.
“I don’t think that’s happened since I’ve been here,” said manager Bruce Bochy, who took over the club in 2023. “You hate to write out a lineup without either one, but we’ve gotta deal with this. We’ve got the guys that can handle this. I'm looking forward to watching how we play from this point on, because these guys have responded so well to some of the things that have happened. I expect them to respond to this as well.”
No Seager, no Semien, no problem. The Rangers opened their series against the A’s with a 5-2 win, chugging along without their two highest paid players thanks to home runs from Jonah Heim and Michael Helman.
Rookie starting pitcher Jack Leiter dealt six innings of two-run ball, marking the third time in his career that he's thrown back-to-back quality starts. It’s also his first career quality start on the road, having previously posted a 5.45 ERA on the road in his young MLB career.
“I think it's just a good opportunity to step up and make something happen, whether just getting on base, making plays in the field, whatever else,” Helman said. “I’m very, very blessed to be in this situation. … You take one game at a time. I think everybody just clicks very well together. There's good energy in the locker room, there's good energy during the games. You gotta take it one pitch, one inning at a time, and try to scrap some stuff together.”
And Seager and Semien are just the tip of the injury iceberg.
The Rangers have landed eight players -- all key contributors -- on the injured list in the last 12 days: Seager, Semien, Evan Carter, Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Jake Burger, Sam Haggerty and Cole Winn.
The name of the game has been about working to re-create that production in the aggregate, whether it’s on the pitching side or the position player side. It’s been about filling the void that has only gotten bigger by the day.
“You do rally around losing guys like that, especially when it's your ace, like Evo,” Leiter said. “He's been incredible. He didn't travel this week, but he was texting me, and he dove in on the A's lineup, and did his own scouting report. Only Evo does that. He texted me a bunch about the game already tonight, so he's in it with us. Hopefully we can do something cool, that'd be awesome.”
That’s the kind of teamwork that can get this team where they want to go.
In the Bochy era, the Rangers have always responded well with their backs up against the wall. They’ve taken nothing but blows over the last two weeks with injuries and tough road trips and a precarious position in the American League Wild Card race.
But Texas, without some of its most important players, has continued to tread water above .500 in the last week. The club has won six of its last seven games and remains in the hunt even when things look improbable.
“They've done a great job,” Bochy said. “I've talked about it quite a bit, with the punches we've taken. I've talked about bouncing. That's what it's going to take. We gotta go out there every game and play with that intensity and determination where we're going to keep fighting to stay in this thing and hopefully get to where we want.”