ARLINGTON, Texas _ A streak is a week. A stretch is a month. It has been two blazing months now for Rougned Odor.
It is a trend.
On Sunday, in a scene stolen from The Natural, Odor crushed a game-changing three-run home run into the teeth of a driving rainstorm in the seventh inning to continue his own personal season of redemption. It gave the Rangers the lead in a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels. Odor drove in all four runs Sunday and had nine in four games.
"I thought we were going to see sparks fly from the light standards," manager Jeff Banister joked.
It would have been appropriate. Exactly two months earlier _ on June 19 _ Banister benched Odor after a late, loud night out in Kansas City that also led to the demotion of pitcher Yohander Mendez and fines for Martin Perez and Carlos Tocci. Before the incident, Odor had started to dig himself out of an awful hole that had dragged on for more than a year.
Since: It has been a rocket ride straight towards the top. The homer was his second of two hits Sunday. He also had an RBI single in the first. He walked in the third, extending his career high total to 34. And then, with the rain falling harder and harder, Odor got ahead 2-and-0 against reliever Noe Ramirez while hunting for anything up to take the sinking fastball out of play. He found a changeup and drove it 418 feet to right center.
It extended his slash line since his return from the benching to .328/.405/.620/1.024. His OPS ranks fourth in the AL behind the three guys likely to end up on the medalist stand at season's end: Cleveland's Jose Ramirez (1.132), Boston's J.D. Martinez (1.130) and Boston's Mookie Betts (1.048). He is tied for fifth in the AL in RBIs (39) and sixth in home runs (14).
Was the benching a factor?
"I don't really think about that," Odor said. "I just try to play the game every day."
After a long staring contest, he added: "Nobody wants to sit on the bench. I want to play no matter what."
More staring.
"OK," he said. "Maybe it is."
Said Banister: "It's a factor, but it's not THE factor. He was trending in the right direction before then. The defense was starting to improve. Everything was starting to improve. Did he get to a low point and come to a realization that 'I need to make some changes?' I think he did."
The changes have been documented and profound. Almost every element of Odor's performance has leaped forward. It is to this point now: He is in striking distance of Jose Altuve, who has been on the DL for three weeks, for the best offensive season by an AL second baseman this season.
Altuve's OPS stands at .857 for the season. When Sunday was over, Odor was at .838, a jump of more than 200 points for the season. Remarkable.
"We never stopped believing in him," Banister said. "Could we envision (this kind of performance)? Absolutely. It takes time to put all the pieces together. He's gotten to this point. The next step is to continue the process. Right now, he is doing that."
He's done it for two months. There are six weeks remaining in the season. If he continues the process through the end, it won't just be a remarkable stretch or trend.
It will be a remarkable season.
