ANAHEIM, Calif. — He's not quite shortstop Corey Seager, who intentionally uses the fewest words possible when forced to publically evaluate himself, though he's not quite pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, whose self reflections are meticulous, in-depth studies. Texas Rangers left fielder Wyatt Langford is scaled somewhere between the two, and while he's not averse to insight, he'll often take the most direct route possible to the point.
So, when asked to shed light on his recent at-bats, he went as the crow flies.
"Uh, yeah, not good," Langford told The Dallas Morning News before Wednesday's game against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium. "I've been pretty bad."
Langford is stuck in a 6-for-53 drought — good for a .113 batting average — that dates back two-and-a-half weeks. It's the worst 15-game stretch of his three-year big league career, and more glaringly, it's come on the heels of his most domiant stretch yet. The 24-year-old was one of baseball's most productive hitters in a nearly two-month span from June 5 to July 26 in which he posted a .995 OPS (the fourth-best league wide), 1.9 WAR (the sixth-best league wide) and single handedly won his team a number of games with his two-way play.
Now, as the Rangers fight against mediocrity and for their postseason lives, their best young hitter is in a bad way.
"It's just one of those rough stretches," Langford, who started Wednesday's game against the Angels on the bench, said. "Baseball, that's how it works, you get really hot, you get really cold, you just try to ride the middle sometimes. So, you know, it's just a tough stretch and I'm trying to figure it out."
Langford has posted just a .067 batting average against all fastballs in his last 15 games, and compared to the .320 batting average he yielded against them in the 30 games prior, it's a precipitous drop. He said that there could be a myriad of causations — his timing, his mechanics, or a confluence of both — but also aknowledged that it's "not just the fastball" that's beaten him. In the fifth inning of Tuesday's loss, with runners on the corners in a two-run game, he fouled off a sinker before he popped up on a slider in the strike zone. Two innings later, with a runner on first base in a one-run game, he grounded out on a first-pitch cutter over the heart of the plate.
"I think he's trying to get hits every at-bat instead of trusting himself and trusting the talent," Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. "He's one of the most talented players in the league, and I feel like, at times, he's just kind of overanxious and trying to get that big hit every at-bat."
The Rangers have needed big hits as they proceed into a six-week stretch that will determine their season. They entered play Wednesday a game behind the Houston Astros for first place in the American League West, with a .500 record for a league-high 20th time this season and were a day removed from a loss in which their biggest bats squandered clutch moments.
Langford, make no doubt about it, is one of the club's biggest bats. They Rangers averaged 4.5 runs per game between June 5 (the date that Langford returned from a forearm flexor strain that sidelined him for a month) and July 26 (the date that his slump began). They've averaged 3.4 runs per game (a bottom-five mark league wide) since. Their 6-7 record in that run hasn't allowed them to gain ground in a division that's evidently available for whichever team can muster a rally. That isn't entirely on Langford's broad shoulders — he's navigated three different injuries this season, the rotation has stumbled, the bullpen has, at times, eroded and his presumed co-star, Seager, still hasn't yet taken off — but the Rangers have seen a tangibly different offensive dynamic when he's dialed in.
"We want to win," Langford said. "We all want to win here and you want to be a part of it and help the team win. When you don't, and you end up losing, it's a crappy feeling. So I'm trying to balance that, going out there and trying hard to win, but not trying too hard. You've got to try and balance it."
SubscribeSign up for the Morning Roundup, a free newsletter delivering the latest North Texas news each morning.This article originally published at To win up-for-grabs AL West, Rangers need Wyatt Langford to climb out of career-worst slump.
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