Wash Preaches Patience With Rangers Offense
ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) -- The Texas Rangers are in an offensive funk. But manager Ron Washington is stressing patience to his players -- knowing that in time, things will change.
In Wednesday night's 5-2 loss to the Indians, the Rangers stranded nine runners, batting 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
"We're not the only team and won't be the last team that hits a spell at some point during the major league season that's six months long," said Washington following the team's third straight series loss. "We're going to fight through it; that's all you can do."
Ron Washington Postgame
The team is batting .221 in the month of June, but has struggled even more in scoring opportunities. Including a 1-for-19 performance in Toronto on June 8, the team is hitting .172 with runners in scoring position.
DH Lance Berkman, playing in his 15th season, believes the team is in a rut – which is actually normal.
"That's part of playing a season, and I've never been through a major league season that I have not been asked about offensive struggles," said Berkman. "It's fairly typical for teams to have a stretch like this. You just try to minimize it."
Any hopes of minimizing the slump must come from the current group of players, that is, until a few key players return from injury.
Second baseman Ian Kinsler begins a rehab stint with AA Frisco on Thursday, with the hope of returning to the team on Sunday. Mitch Moreland, meanwhile, can't return from the DL until June 21.
"What I have is what I have," said Washington. "We just have to wait for it to come around. I don't know what tinkering and tweaking I can do. We're just a little flat offensively. As I said, we'll just keep grinding every day, and we'll get through it."
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