ARLINGTON, Texas _ For better or worse, the Rangers have established an offensive identity for the remainder of the season.
All-out slugging, or else.
In the Year of the Home Run, the Rangers rank among the teams most dependent upon the long ball to fuel the offense. They have scored 49.1 percent of their runs via the homer, third-highest total in the majors.
The reliance on the homer runs deep. The Rangers cannot get by with just one homer per game. They need lots and lots of homers.
The Rangers are 30-13 for multi-homer games. Depending upon getting multi-homer games is a tough way to go. It is the rare team that can bludgeon its way to the playoffs.
The telling number is the Rangers are 13-32 for games with one or no homers. That is the second-worst record, by winning percentage, in the majors at .289. Only dreadful Philadelphia is worse at 14-50 for a .219 winning percentage.
The two top teams in the majors, by winning percentage, also have the top records in the one-or-none games.
Houston, which leads the Rangers by 16 { games in the American League West, is 26-18 in one-or-none games for a .599 winning percentage. The Los Angeles Dodgers, leading the National League West by 7 { games, are 34-24 for a .586 winning percentage.
Pitching and defense figure in these records, too. For the Rangers, seven losses in one-or-none games came in games with a blown save. That does not change the reality that the Rangers have become a one-dimensional offense.
Teams that live on the homer usually are plagued by rally-snuffing strikeouts. The Rangers are second in the AL for homers with 135 and third in strikeouts with 9.3 per game.
Houston is the exception. The Astros could become the first team since the 1995 Cleveland Indians of Albert Belle to have the most homers and fewest strikeouts in a league.
"You need to have a balanced attack," manager Jeff Banister said. "That's always your best attack. But I'm never going to argue with a ball going out of the park for our side. Instant offense, you'll take that every time."
The Rangers did not plan it this way. They envisioned an offense like the productive group of the last two seasons, which ended with AL West titles. The Rangers hit homers, but they also created runs with good situational hitting. The Rangers hit .277 with runners in scoring position last season. They are down to .244 this year.
"We've been inconsistent in that department this year," Banister said. "We can get back to that. We keep talking about doing that."
There were subtle signs of improvement before the All-Star break. The Rangers started making opposing pitchers work.
From Opening Day through June 25, the Rangers averaged 3.89 pitches per plate appearances, which was 17th in the majors. They were easy-to-pitch-to free swingers.
The teachings of hitting instructors Anthony Iapoce and Justin Mashore began to take hold in the last week of June, starting with a series at Cleveland. Since June 26, the Rangers have the highest pitches-per-plate-appearances rate in the majors at 4.26.
If the Rangers can continue this in the second half, they will grind down pitchers. More tosses increases the possibility of mistakes by pitchers.
"The sheer volume of pitches these (opposing) guys are seeing is going to prove out to be one of the things that help jump-start this offense," Banister said.
The Rangers can slug. They need to hit, too.
