ARLINGTON, Texas — Rougned Odor was struggling so badly a month into this season that he was sent back to the minor leagues by the Texas Rangers.
Now the 21-year-old second baseman is a big reason Texas returned home with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five AL division series against Toronto.
Aggressive on the bases, Odor scored twice in Game 2 with a pair of nifty slides into the plate — one on a shallow sacrifice fly, and the other for the tiebreaking run in the 14th inning of their 6-4 win.
“Right now, he’s in a position that he feels good, and he feels his confidence level is high and he can do whatever,” shortstop Elvis Andrus said Saturday before the Rangers worked out at home.
Sort of like a then-22-year-old Andrus was in 2010, when the Rangers also had a 2-0 ALDS lead and were on the way to their first World Series. Andrus is now the longest-tenured position player in Texas.
Game 3 against the Blue Jays is Sunday night in Texas.
Left-hander Martin Perez (3-6) pitches for the Rangers in the potential clincher. Marco Estrada (13-8), who held hitters to an MLB-low .183 batting average after the all-star break, starts for Toronto.
“We need a big outburst with the bats, score a lot of runs,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “We score in bunches. That’s kind of our trademark.”
