Texas ranks No. 1 in western division as Choo Shin-soo reemerges

Texas ranks No. 1 in western division as Choo Shin-soo reemerges. September. 17, 2015 14:21. moonsy1028@gmail.com.

The Texas Rangers, which Choo Shin-soo is affiliated, has risen to No. 1 in the American League western division of the Major League Baseball. In the second match of the four consecutive games against the Huston Astros on Wednesday, Texas won due to Mitch Moreland’s finishing sacrifice fly ball at the bottom of the ninth inning to rise to the top spot in the division. With two consecutive wins against Huston, Texas leads Huston by a gap of 0.5 game.

Texas lost to Colorado on July 22, which widened its gap versus then top-ranked Huston to nine games. However, Texas took off afterwards to post three wins, 18 losses, and a winning rate of 0.647 to finally emerge as No. 1 in the division. .

Texas has been able to rise to No. 1 by maintaining high in the second half due mainly to its table setter Choo Shin-soo. Choo had only one hit, and one run from four times at bat on the day, when his team won 6-5, but after its first batter Delino DeShields’ hit in the bottom of the first inning, Choo garnered a walk and created a scoring opportunity with no out, and with runners on the first and second bases. Collin McHugh, Huston’s starting pitcher with 16 wins this season, had to leave the mound early on after allowing eight hits and five runs during three and two thirds of innings. He was substituted after playing the fewest innings since his team’s game against Toronto on June 14.

Choo has elevated his batting average for this season to 0.259 by posting impressive three hits from four times at bat in the game against Oakland on Monday. He has shown more stellar performance in offense in the second half than in the first. In the first half, Choo hit the bottom in both batting average and on-base percentage. He virtually deserved criticism of being a "robber among FAs." He had a batting average of 0.221, and an on-base percentage of 0.305. In the second half, however, Choo has displayed solid performance in offense, which is on par with his robust performance as top hitter at Cincinnati in 2013.