Wyatt Langford exits early against Mariners

Langford worked Clayton Beeter for a one-out walk in the seventh inning and promptly swiped second base to get himself into scoring position, but the Rangers couldn’t cash him in from there. He’s having a solid all-around season at the dish, slashing .251/.318/.454 with 14 homers, 33 RBI and 10 stolen bases in his first 324 plate appearances.

Langford singled to lead off the bottom of the first inning and scored the first run of the game on a groundout. He singled again to lead off the third before scoring for a second time on a fielder’s choice. Langford would later reach for a third time on a walk in the sixth. The 24-year-old outfielder is hitting .257/323/.465 with 14 homers, 44 runs scored, 33 RBI, and nine steals across 316 plate appearances. While setting an excellent pace, he’s been limited to 74 games due to forearm and hamstring injuries.

Langford’s 14th homer off J.T. Ginn gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead in the sixth and gave Langford his first runs batted in since Aug. 1. He’d gone 3-for-37 in his previous 12 games, which led to him receiving a day off on Wednesday.

Langford receives a much-needed mental break to reset after going 2-for-21 over his last seven games. The 24-year-old fantasy standout was tearing the cover off the ball before hurting his foot back in late July. He’s batted .094 (3-for-32) with one homer and one stolen base across 10 games since the start of August.

Langford’s home run was his 13th this year. He hit a solo shot off Ronel Blanco in the third inning. Langford is now 39-for-128 (.304) with 11 home runs and 24 RBI over his last 31 games. He’s hitting .275 with an .826 OPS on the season, but has been on fire lately.

His hard grounder down the line off Craig Kimbrel momentarily gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning. Langford is hitting .323/.368/.629 over his last 30 games with 10 homers and four stolen bases, though he’s been colder of late. Perhaps this will get him back on track.

Langford again fouled a ball off his leg today, but he was able to shake that one off. Scarier later was that he and Ezequiel Duran collided on a fly to shallow left that Duran caught. Both players were able to remain in the game afterwards, though.

Langford had a brief injury scare on Saturday as he exited after fouling multiple pitches off of his foot. Fortunately, X-rays came back negative for any fractures and he’s feeling improved enough to jump right back into the lineup on Sunday. The dynamic 24-year-old outfielder is in left field and batting second against Mariners’ right-hander Logan Gilbert.

Langford had X-rays, which were negative. He was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored before departing Saturday.

Langford will get a look atop Texas’ lineup with rookie southpaw Noah Schultz taking the ball for Chicago. It’s typically been Joc Pederson leading off against right-handed starters for the last couple weeks with Langford batting second. He’s out of the lineup to start this contest. The other notable change are Justin Foscue hitting second as he continues to emerge as a reliable lefty-mashing platoon option and rookie Cameron Cauley drawing a start in center field.