Lineup Change Has Offense Humming

Moving Josh Hamilton (left) to number five in the batting order and replacing him with Ian Kinsler at three has paid dividends for everyone involved. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

With Ian Kinsler fresh off the disabled list and hitting well, along with Josh Hamilton being in a three-game funk having struck out in nine of 12 at-bats, Rangers' manager Ron Washington knew it was time for a change.

After giving Hamilton the game-off for the first game of the series against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night, Washington decided it was best to move the Rangers star to fifth in the lineup.

"I don't know if it's permanent or not," Washington said before the switch. "I thought [Kinsler] looked good there [Monday] and I wanted to keep him there. So I put Hamilton between Guerrero and Cruz."

In the 10 games before the switch, Hamilton was batting .239 and saw his batting average drop to .268 for the season. Since moving to the fifth spot in the order (three games), Hamilton has at least two hits in every game, a home run, two RBI and has seen his batting average climb to a respectable .284 for the season.

Kinsler, who started batting third in the lineup on Monday night, has seen his hot hitting remain steady. He's got at least one hit in all four games, has scored four runs and knocked in another, and is batting .312 during the stretch.

Aside from the individual results, Texas has won all four games since the change, scoring an average of 7 runs per and cranking out 13 hits per game.

"We feel like every one of us in the lineup can carry the team or drive in runs on any given night," Kinsler said, following Thursday 13-7 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. "It's nice to have confidence in your teammates like that."

Hamilton will likely regain the third spot in the order but the fact that Washington wasn't scared to bench, and subsequently demote, his best player shows that the manager has earned the respect and control of this team. Washington's decision making isn't always perfect, but this is one situation where you can't argue with the results.

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)