They’re the worst offensive team in baseball. 

Second-lowest team batting average of all 30 teams. Scored the second-fewest runs. Second-worst OPS. Third-fewest hits.

No, not the Rangers. The Mariners. Seattle has turned into what Texas was early in the season: boring. Imagine an entire lineup of Corey Seagers. Guys who should hit, guys who could hit, guys who have hit in the past, but guys who are totally lost now and cannot hit. That’s the Mariners, Seagers up and down the lineup.

The Rangers, on the other hand, have quietly turned themselves into a decent offense, with the fifth-best team batting average over the last 30 days, sixth best OPS. That’s a far cry from where they were in April, May, and most of June. 

They’re still only one-game over .500. But that one game seems like 20 in the remedial A.L. West. Last night, Wyatt Langford continued his one-man wrecking crew since coming off the I.L. with a monster home run in the first to get the Rangers scoring started. Since coming back, Langford is hitting .295 with an elite .931 OPS, smashing four home runs in 11 games.

He is the kind of player that can carry a team when he’s hot. And right now, he’s hot. And the Mariners aren’t.

Texas takes Game 1 of The Series 5-4. Three more games to go. 

*****