The Texas offense had its best showing of the season Tuesday night in Sacramento, pumping 4 homers and scoring 8 runs, both season highs. The temporary home for the Athletics has shown to be one of the more hitter-friendly parks in all of baseball, coming in at number 2 in terms of park factor.
So what a time for Bruce Bochy to break out a fresh new lineup to get the boys going.
The most notable change was Marcus Semien getting bumped down to the 5 spot, being replaced by Josh Smith. Since 2022, Semien has led off about 450 games and has not hit below third in the order since 2021 and over 600 games.
Via Rangers, each of Marcus Semien's last 638 starts beg. 5/4/21 have come in the 3rd spot or higher (520-1st, 85-2nd, 33-3rd)...He's hitting 5th for the third time in his career.
— Jared Sandler (@JaredSandler) April 22, 2025
Bochy also switched Corey Seager and Wyatt Lanford, having Seager hit third instead of his usual 2-hole, breaking up the lefties and putting him and Adolis Garcia back-to-back in the middle of the order.
This does not come off as a panic move whatsoever. Yet, with the offense's slow start to the season, getting a more traditional leadoff approach out of Josh Smith, leading to more traffic on the basepaths, is a necessity. That is exactly what this change did in Game 1, putting up two runs in first five hitters of the ball game without the longball coming into play at that point.
Smith started with a walk, then a single by Langford. Seager moved them over, and a Garcia double scored one. This type of run production is something we have not seen out of this offense all season. It all started with a Smith walk, something that Semein does not do often and whose approach has always been better suited elsewhere, hence his two-hit (one homer) night out of the 5-hole.
The change at the top is the most notable, but having Langford, Seager, and Garcia looming after is something dreams are made of. Of course, we can’t have nice things, so Seager did leave the game with a hamstring issue.
I do believe the change at the top is here to stay and may be just what Marcus needed to get going anyway. Based on Seager’s injury the the middle of the order may have to be shuffled a bit. But the spark has been set, and two more gams of the ball flying out of Sutter Health Park is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Texas bats.