The only thing reliable about Jake Burger is how inconsistent he is. He not there. Then he’s carrying the offense. Then he disappears. Then he reemerges. 

After the first ten games of the season, he was batting .317, with a stellar .910 OPS. 

The next 30 games: .165/.485. That’s not just a small drop off, that’s being shoved off the side of the Grand Canyon. It got so bad, in fact, he was benched for the proverbial “unplugging to get his head back together.” That’s a long stretch of bad. 

But as is Burger’s pattern, he’s suddenly hot again, batting .500 over his last five games, with an OPS of 1.516. 

This isn’t rollercoasting, it’s bungee jumping. It’s steep, prolonged plunges followed by skyscraping highs. All of which explains why Burger’s career OPS+ is 110. Slightly above the average major league player. 

His highs are high. His lows are low. Fortunately for the Rangers, he’s heating up again, picking up ten RBIs this past week alone, many of them in key situations. Today, for instance.

After having lost the first two games of the Houston series in embarrassing offensive fashion, the Rangers needed to salvage a win. But the first four innings were like the previous two games. Futile. Only one baserunner, by virtue of walking.

Alejandro Osuna led off the fifth with the Rangers first hit. Jake Burger, down to batting seventh in the lineup, crushed a ball to right field, and the Rangers finally had a lead. He’d double in two more runs in the seventh, and the Rangers road on his back to an 8-0 victory.

Good Jake is back. Enjoy it while you can. Because he will disappear, just like that.

*****