{"id":79492,"date":"2025-07-21T02:11:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T02:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/79492\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T02:11:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T02:11:36","slug":"hot-bat-of-kyle-higashioka-forcing-shift-in-rangers-catching-dynamic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/79492\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot bat of Kyle Higashioka forcing shift in Rangers\u2019 catching dynamic"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 Has there been a change to the Rangers<\/a>\u2019 catching hierarchy? <\/p>\n

Kyle Higashioka seems to be making a case for one.<\/p>\n

The latest asset in his portfolio: a hot bat. Higashioka began Sunday\u2019s game with a career-high seven-game hitting streak, during which he has gone 10 for 27 (.370). Four of the 10 hits have gone for extra bases.<\/p>\n

Related:Nathan Eovaldi expected to avoid IL, adding suspense to Texas Rangers\u2019 pitching situation<\/a><\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

Manager Bruce Bochy likes to \u201cride the hot hand.\u201d It\u2019s resulted in more playing time behind the plate. Though he was the designated hitter on Sunday, he\u2019s started five of the last nine games and split time equally with Jonah Heim over the last month. Including DH starts, he has started each of the Rangers\u2019 last six games. <\/p>\n

\u201cHitting is always just the constant process of figuring out what works this year versus what doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Higashioka said. \u201cUnless you are a Hall of Famer, your swing is different every year. It\u2019s been about finding out the strengths and weaknesses I have this year.\u201d <\/p>\n

Among those weaknesses was an intercostal muscle strain that cost him the first two weeks of May. The rib area had been bothering him longer than the time he spent on the injured list, Higashioka said. After he returned, it took time to rediscover what was working for him. <\/p>\n

By June 29, his batting average had fallen to .212 and his OPS to .568. Since then, he\u2019s made steady progress, pushing his batting average up to .254 and his OPS to .679. Both are the highest they\u2019ve been since the end of April.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been a constant fight to get back to the kind of principles that I think make you successful, which is that you\u2019ve got to be able to hit the fastball without cheating. Then everything else falls into place,\u201d Higashioka said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year you do something different that maybe throws you off. So you gotta get back to where you were. I\u2019m not hitting as many home runs as I was last year, but I think I\u2019m in a good spot.\u201d <\/p>\n

Higashioka\u2019s impact on the game in other ways can\u2019t be overlooked. The pitching staff had a 2.81 ERA with him behind the plate compared to 3.52 with Heim. Also of note, the Rangers entered Sunday 25-15 when Higashioka caught, 24-32 when Heim caught.<\/p>\n

Twitter: <\/b>@Evan_P_Grant<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Texas Rangers RP Chris Martin exits game vs. Tigers with apparent leg injury<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rangers\u2019 pitching staff could be taking another hit.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Nathan Eovaldi expected to avoid IL, adding suspense to Texas Rangers\u2019 pitching situation<\/a><\/p>\n

Bruce Bochy and the Rangers have options, even more so with Jon Gray set to return from injury as well.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Who is Cody Freeman? 5 things to know about Texas Rangers\u2019 latest rookie call-up<\/a><\/p>\n

Freeman was called up to the Rangers on Friday for his first spin with the major league club.<\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 Has there been a change to the Rangers\u2019 catching hierarchy? Kyle Higashioka seems to be making…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":79493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,12097,358,1278,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-79492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-rangers","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-rangers","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114888801236257917","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}