Texas Rangers Adolis Garcia lost his bat while striking out against the New York Mets during the seventh inning of a baseball game on June 19 in Arlington. in 2024. And here they are approaching the season’s midpoint, acknowledging they’ve reached a critical juncture of the season, still unsure of one very important element.Offense is down around baseball this year. You can either cue the deadball conspiracy theories, or simply look at the Rangers.
When pitchers get ahead of any hitter, the at-bat swings decidedly in the pitcher’s favor. With García, it opens up the door to use the fastball above the zone with impunity. García has been in two-strike counts 305 times already this season. He’s seen fastballs 107 times, 71 of them being at the top or above the zone. He’s 2 for 35 with a pair of singles and 24 strikeouts. It’s about as automatic as it gets.
Texas Rangers designated hitter Jonah Heim tossed his bat as he winced in pain after being hit by a pitch during the seventh inning against the Oakland Athletics on April 11 in Arlington.Heim has a .353 expected slugging percentage against the fastball. It ranks 177th of the 205 players to have seen at least 750 pitches this year. Against average to above-average velocity , the figure drops to .241 from the left side, from where the switch hitter takes the majority of his at-bats.
As for the fastball, he was a .300 hitter against the pitch last year with an expected batting average of .319 and slugged .530. This year: .233 with a .400 slugging percentage.