Nathaniel Lowe Streaking for Texas Rangers

Nathaniel Lowe is building on his Rangers Player of the Year Award season from a year ago.

Texas Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe is the first player in the Majors to have at least two 11-game hitting streaks this season and it’s barely the middle of May.

Lowe carries a 12-game hitting streak into Sunday’s series finale at the Oakland Athletics. The American League West-leading Rangers (24-15) go for their fifth divisional series win in a row without a loss this season with Andrew Heaney (2-3, 5.25) on the hill. Oakland (9-32) counters with JP Sears (0-3, 5.54) for the 3:07 p.m. CT start.

Lowe is coming off a 2-for-4 game with two RBI in Saturday's 5-0 shutout, with one of those hits being an opposite-field solo home run.

He now has teammate Robbie Grossman’s team-best 14-game hitting streak in his sights.

“Yeah, might as well,” Lowe said on Saturday about making it a 13-game hitting streak.

A day game after falling to 9-7 in 10 innings Friday night, the Rangers had to cobble together offense. 

“We just had a tough time stringing a bunch of hits together, but you know we have to win games like that,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said.

Lowe was the 2022 Rangers Player of the Year and a Silver Slugger after he became the first Rangers hitter in a half-dozen years to finish the season batting at least .300.

He’s been as steady as they come so far this season. He’s one of two players to start in every Rangers game so far (second baseman Marcus Semien is the other). He’s one of five Rangers with at least 24 runs and 24 RBI this season, and the Rangers are the only team with more than one.

Still, he’s improving.

In his last 30 games his batting average is .265. In his last 15 games that batting average is .281. He’s hit three of his five home runs this season in the last 15 games.

He’s also reached safely in his last 17 games.

Lowe has evolved into one of those players that you don’t have to worry about at the plate. He comes to the park each day and he gets quality at-bats. He’s failed to get a hit in just six of 39 games this season.

Plus, while the sample size is small, Lowe’s defense appears to have gotten better, which was a point of emphasis after a .993 fielding percentage and nine errors last season.

So far he’s made just one error and has a .997 fielding percentage.

So Lowe will keep chasing Grossman on Sunday, and catcher Jonah Heim won’t be far behind. He has an 11-game hitting streak going into Sunday after getting Saturday off.

The way Lowe is playing, don't expect a day off soon from the starting first baseman.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.

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