Justin

Foscue

Foscue’s homer was one of two the Rangers hit off Jacob Lopez, but those were the only runs they could muster on the afternoon. He’s up to 11 homers on the year, eight of which have come against left-handers. Foscue gets the majority of his playing time against southpaws and has hit them at an impressive clip. His small-side platoon role makes him most valuable in deeper daily-lineup leagues or in DFS.

Foscue’s home run was his 10th of the season. He hit a solo shot off Gage Jump in the fourth inning. Foscue was still pinch hit for once the left-hander Jump was out of the game. His at-bats are limited to facing left-handed pitching, but he’s hit 10 home runs in those limited at-bats. Foscue is much more valuable in his role with the Rangers than he is to fantasy managers.

Carter started against each of the other three left-handers that the Rangers faced this week, but he’ll get a breather in this one with Yusei Kikuchi taking the ball for the Halos. Ezequiel Duran will cover center field in his absence while Justin Foscue starts at second base and bats leadoff for the Rangers.

Foscue got the start on Tuesday with a left-hander on the mound. He came through right away with a solo homer off Jackson Kent in the second inning. He then drew a bases-loaded walk in the third to drive in his second run. Foscue was lifted for a pinch-hitter to lead off the fifth with a right-hander in the game. The 27-year-old infielder has been limited to a short-side platoon, but has performed well in his time, slashing .257/.321/.474 with eight homers and 23 RBI across 168 plate appearances.

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.

Texas coughed up a 6-1 lead in the seventh but won the game on Wyatt Langford’s single in the bottom of the ninth. Foscue homered off Reid Detmers in the fourth and doubled in a run in the sixth. Both hits were off lefties, as is typical. He’s now hitting .367/.466/.796 in 49 at-bats against southpaws, compared to .216/.255/.353 in 51 at-bats versus righties. As a result, he’ll likely be on the bench Friday against Houston’s Hunter Brown.

Foscue entered the game as a pinch hitter to lead off the seventh inning for the Rangers. He came through with a solo homer off Tayler Saucedo to tie the game. Foscue later added a base hit to drive in another run in the eighth before crossing home for his second run scored. The 27-year-old infielder has been limited to a short side platoon, hitting .284/.355/.537 with six homers and 17 RBI across 107 plate appearances.

Smith had hit .218/.316/.248 in 117 plate appearances with the Rangers at the start of the season before being demoted to Triple-A. The 28-year-old is not in the lineup on Wednesday, with Justin Foscue playing second base and batting first against a left-handed pitcher and Nicky Lopez playing shortstop and batting ninth. It remains to be seen if Smith will play over Foscue when right-handers are on the mound.

Foscue has been limited to starts against lefties since the Rangers brought in Nicky Lopez and things don’t figure to get any better with Josh Smith back, but he’s batting .274/.333/.493 through 81 plate appearances. If he can stick even as a platoon guy against lefties, that seems like a better career outcome than he was looking at the previous year or two.

Duran was replaced by Nicky Lopez at shortstop with Justin Foscue taking over at second base after going 0-for-2 at the dish. It doesn’t sound like a serious concern heading into Thursday’s series finale.