All eyes will be on the status of reigning World Series MVP Corey Seager when the Texas Rangers open a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants on Friday night in Arlington, Texas.
Seager extended his career-best on-base streak to 28 games with a second-inning single off left-hander Joey Wentz in Wednesday afternoon’s 9-1 victory over visiting Detroit. Seager, however, grabbed the back of his left hamstring as he was getting ready to round first base and he left the game.
“Hamstring tightness,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “Being cautious there. See where we’re at after the day off (on Thursday). We don’t think it’s anything serious but just wanted to get him off his legs. Come Friday, we’ll see where we’re at with Corey. It might be a day. We don’t know yet.”
Bochy said he didn’t expect his star shortstop to get an MRI.
“I felt a little twinge,” Seager said. “I’m fine. We’ll see how the next couple of days go, and just kind of go from there.”
Seager, who missed all but the final three games of spring training after offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia, has had issues with his left hamstring in the past. The four-time All-Star missed 31 games with a left hamstring strain in April 2023 and also missed a month in 2019 while with the Los Angeles Dodgers with another left hamstring injury.
“Hopefully, the next couple of days I’ll feel better and we can reassess,” Seager said.
The injury comes at a delicate time for the defending World Series champions. Texas is in second place in the American League West, 4 1/2 games behind the Seattle Mariners. Seager, who hit just .208 with two home runs and six RBIs in April, has been one of the hottest players in baseball since, batting .329 with 11 homers, including eight over an eight-game stretch, to go with 24 RBIs.
Bochy will manage the Rangers for the second time against his former club, which he led to three World Series titles in 13 seasons. Texas won once in three tries last season at San Francisco.
Rangers right-hander Michael Lorenzen (3-3, 2.96 ERA) will start the series opener and be opposed by Giants right-hander Logan Webb (4-5, 2.95).
Lorenzen is 0-1 with a 7.71 ERA in nine career appearances and three starts against the Giants, including 0-0 with a 9.31 ERA in a pair of starts with the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies last season.
Webb is 1-0 with a 1.47 ERA in three career starts against Texas. He is chsing his first win since a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 15.
San Francisco, third in the National League West and one game out of a wild-card spot, comes in after snapping a six-game losing streak with 9-3 victory at Arizona on Wednesday afternoon. Wilmer Flores hit a grand slam and Jorge Soler also homered for the Giants, but it was the play of outfielder Heliot Ramos, a first-round pick in the 2017 MLB Draft, that was the talk of the locker room afterward.
The 24-year-old Ramos had a long two-run homer above Arizona’s 25-foot wall in center field, singled and walked four times. It marked just the 13th time in the Giants’ 67-year era in San Francisco that a player reached base six times without the aid of an error or a fielder’s choice. That feat was accomplished just once by Willie Mays and never by Barry Bonds.
“He’s just so balanced, every take, every swing,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s just completely locked in. I mean, who walks four times? Especially when you’re hitting like he is. You want to swing.”
–Field Level Media