ARLINGTON — Bruce Bochy turned 70 years old Wednesday before his Texas Rangers attempted to string together consecutive wins for the first time since their last homestand. Good luck finding a gift for a guy who’s done it all and is one day bound for the Baseball Hall of Fame with his four World Series rings in tow.
Here’s a suggestion: Don’t overcomplicate it. The best gifts are often the obvious ones. Bochy doesn’t ask for a lot either. This, for example, is what he asked out of his lineup lately.
“Hit the ball really hard,” he said Tuesday afternoon before the start of Texas’ series vs. the Los Angeles Angels when asked how to jump-start a listless offense, “and have nobody be there.”
He cracked a smile at the simplicity of the plea.
There’s some truth to every joke.
The Rangers had the sixth-worst batting average (.212) and the third-fewest runs scored (55) in the league despite the belief that their offense is designed to slug and carry the team before Wednesday’s 3-1 win vs. the Angels at Globe Life Field.
There’s just one issue: They haven’t hit the ball particularly hard over the balance of their first three weeks and, to their detriment, there have been defenders in the way often. The first two games of this six-game California-themed homestand exemplify what happens when they do.
It’s been a long time coming. The Rangers began play Wednesday ranked dead last in batting average on balls in play — or BABIP — with a .239 clip. It quantifies the percentage of batted balls that drop for hits vs. outs and is often looked at as the closest statistic that can measure a team or player’s luck. The Rangers, that statistic may signify, have been unlucky at the plate. They own first place in the American League West and an above-.500 record despite the fifth-worst run differential in baseball.
Regardless: BABIP is not necessarily a perfect or definitive statistic on its own. It can be a tad more illuminating when paired with others. The Rangers’ .309 BABIP during the 2023 season, in which the offense carried the team into the postseason and eventually the club’s first World Series title, was the third-highest in baseball. It was that high in part because when the Rangers hit the ball, they hit it hard. Their average exit velocity two seasons ago (89.8 mph) was the second-hardest in baseball. Their hard-hit percentage (41.8%) ranked fourth. Think about it: A soft-hit ball is less prone to a long flight and gives a defender time to react, but a hard hit will travel and put a defense to work.
It’s time to make ‘em work. Their hard-hit percentage this season (39.6%) is tied for the eighth-worst in baseball. Their average exit velocity is just a half-mile per hour better than league average. It’s resembled last season’s offense — in which their hard-hit percentage and average exit velocity were below league average and their BABIP was third-worst — more so than the title-winning team. Each of the top five teams in hard-hit percentage last season (the Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers) reached the postseason.
Those who witnessed last year’s Rangers offense start, stop, scuffle and stall for the better part of 162 games might shudder at any comparison. Bochy, when asked Tuesday to explain why this season’s slow start is an isolated incident and not a continuation of last year, shook it off.
“You look at the talent in this lineup,” Bochy said. “You look at their history, their résumé. They’ve hit and there’s no reason why they’re not going to hit there this year, so it’s just staying behind them.”
To his point, the Rangers have big swingers. Adolis García (47.5%), Jake Burger (47.4%), Corey Seager (46.1%) and Joc Pederson (45.8%) each rank within the top 41 of 227 active qualified hitters in career hard-hit percentage. The Rangers and the Braves are the only two teams with four players in that same range, and in FanGraphs’ Hard% category, which is measured slightly differently than hard-hit percentage, the Rangers and the reigning World Series champion Dodgers are the only two teams with four players in the top 28 of that statistic for their career.
Pardon the numbers. Prioritize the pedigree. That’s how Bochy sees it, at least, even though it hasn’t materialized early. Seager’s 45.2% hard-hit percentage this year is so far his worst as a Ranger and his lowest since the 2019 season. Burger (42.1%) and Pederson (32.3%) are below their previous career-low marks too. García’s 53.3% hard-hit percentage is at a career high; his .209 BABIP is a career low. You can see where the truth lied in Bochy’s half-joke, half-wish from Tuesday afternoon.
The Rangers’ consecutive wins vs. the Angels were positive steps in the hit-the-ball-hard direction. The Rangers charted 12 hard-hit balls (95 mph or harder) in Tuesday’s 4-0 win and added another 13 — including 11 that were hit 100 mph or harder — in Wednesday’s win. It was just the sixth and seventh time that they’d eclipsed double digits this season and Wednesday’s total was second-most that they’d registered in a single game all season.
Seager, who went 2 for 3 and scored the Rangers’ third run, yielded a season-high 105.9 mph average exit velocity on his three batted balls Tuesday and had three more hits Wednesday. Burger had his first three-hit night Wednesday, carded two singles with exit velocities of 98 mph or greater and drove in the Rangers’ first run with a second-inning single.
“I think [to hit the ball hard] it’s more efficiency in your move, there’s not wasted movement at all,” Burger said. “To be able to hit a ball 108, 109 plus, you have to be very smooth and crisp with your movements.”
Those hits were crisp Wednesday night. There wasn’t anyone in the way to stop them either.
The 70-year-old might know a thing or two.
Bochy’s birthday bash: See photos from Texas Rangers’ win over Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night
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