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Texas Rangers All-Star Out Monday at Astros
Texas Rangers right fielder Adolis García is not in the starting lineup for Monday’s series opener at the Houston Astros.
The Rangers released the lineup for the start of the key three-game series at Minute Maid Park and García was not included for the second consecutive game. Third baseman Josh Jung was in García’s clean-up spot again after being there Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Texas is also without All-Star shortstop Corey Seager against the defending World Series champions.
García missed Sunday’s series finale with the Dodgers after being hit by a pitch Saturday. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said García was having trouble gripping the bat, but that he could be available as a pinch-hitter.
The Rangers didn’t need García in the 8-4 victory.
Per The Dallas Morning News, the Rangers checked with García before posting their lineup on Monday and consider the All-Star to be day-to-day.
García took a pitch from Dodgers starter Bobby Miller off his left hand in the fourth inning on Saturday. He was in obvious pain, but after a visit with the Rangers trainer, he took his base and remained in the game. He left an inning later after he was pinch-hit for by Robbie Grossman.
The Rangers did X-Rays on García on Saturday, which came up negative. The Rangers haven’t done additional testing on him, as they did on Seager, who had an MRI the day after he sprained his right thumb against the Dodgers on Friday.
García is batting .260 with 24 home runs and 80 RBI, with a .335 on-base percentage and a .512 slugging percentage. He went 0-for-1 on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Seager was working on fielding while his right thumb was in a splint during pregame on Monday. He is on the 10-day injured list.
The Rangers (59-41) lead the Astros (56-44) by 3.0 games in the American League West.
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