Lineup shakeup pays off as Rangers erupt vs. A's

WEST SACRAMENTO -- “Leading off for the Texas Rangers, second baseman Marcus Semien.”

There have been a few constants during the Bruce Bochy era of Rangers baseball. Semien leading off has been one of them. Since Bochy took over as the Texas manager in 2023, Semien has led off in 330 of 342 possible regular-season games. He also led off in all 17 postseason games in 2023.

On Tuesday, before the Rangers beat the A's, 8-5, in the series opener at Sutter Health Park, Bochy made sweeping changes to a scuffling offensive lineup, including moving Semien down to the fifth spot in the order.

Semien has struggled early this season, entering Tuesday slashing just .141/.209/.192 with an OPS+ of 20. The veteran second baseman understood the reasoning.

"I don't have any say right now, until I start getting back to doing what I do,” Semien said before the game. “I have no say, so that's where I'm at. I hit some balls hard last game. There's certain days where I come back into the clubhouse after the game thinking that day could have been a lot different on the stat sheet, if I found the gap here or there. But it hasn't been that way right now. It's frustrating. But like I said, the Rangers are playing well. That's what matters.”

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Semien had made only two career starts (out of 1,503 games) in the five-hole in the batting order (one with Toronto and one with the A's). Each of his last 638 starts since May 4, 2021, had come in the third spot or higher (520 hitting first, 85 hitting second, 33 hitting third).

The early lineup changes paid dividends for Semien in particular, who went 2-for-3 with four RBIs and a home run.

"We talked about what a good job he does with men in scoring position,” Bochy said. “Sure enough, he came up quite a few times with guys out there. He came through. What a great game by him.”

Utilityman Josh Smith led off instead, opening the game with a walk and adding a home run of his own in the fifth.

Smith entered Tuesday with 31 career starts in the leadoff spot. He’s now the third different leadoff hitter used by Texas in 2025, joining Semien (21 games) and Joc Pederson (one game). That marks the most unique leadoff hitters used in the Rangers’ first 23 games since 2022 when they used four in that span -- Semien (11), Brad Miller (eight), Kole Calhoun (three) and Nathaniel Lowe (one).

"It's a little different, obviously,” Smith said. “We’re just trying to change things up a little bit, get some little bit more offensive production and try to score more runs obviously. You've still got to go out there, perform and hit. You do the same thing no matter where you hit."

Bochy made a number of other changes to his typical lineup, including moving Wyatt Langford to the two-hole with Corey Seager batting behind him.

"I've been thinking about it for the last two or three weeks,” Bochy said of the lineup changes. “With Corey in the three-hole and Marcus in the five-hole, they’re two experienced guys in key positions. I decided to go ahead and do it. You want to get the consistency that I believe this offense is going to have, and Marcus has a lot of experience driving in the runs, so went ahead and did it. … I think we’ll see what happens with it.”

The thought process for all the changes is simply to try to get the offense going. Collectively, the Rangers were slashing .220/.274/.363 entering the day. Their .637 OPS was 25th in baseball.

The Rangers scored two runs in the first inning of Tuesday’s win, marking just the third time the club scored multiple runs in the first inning this season. It was the first time since April 5 (four-run first against the Rays).

Texas ultimately logged season highs in extra-base hits (5), home runs (4), total bases (23) and runs scored (8). Bochy said he felt like the at-bats up and down the lineup were better Tuesday than they have been all season so far.

"The Rangers aren't struggling,” Semien said. “It could be a lot worse for us. I think our pitching has carried us while we continue to work to get out of our little rut. When you walk into this clubhouse, everybody's ready to work, everybody's feeling good and we just need some success out on the field. That's what we're hoping for tonight.”