It's not surprising that Taveras sat versus lefties on Friday and Saturday, but he would normally be in there against a righty today. Instead, the Rangers have Travis Jankowski in center. Taveras has had a disappointing season, but he's not particularly slumping at the moment, having gone 5-for-17 with a couple of doubles in his last five games. This is the first time he's been out of the lineup against righty since July 31.
With the bases loaded and the infield drawn in with one out in the ninth inning, Taveras bounced a single up the middle to knock in the game-winning run. The 25-year-old's defense keeps him on the field, but his .227/.282/.345 slash line with 39 RBIs means that he doesn't need to be on your fantasy rosters.
On the plus side for fantasy managers, Bibee was still able to rack up six strikeouts on the evening while allowing only one base on balls. All of the damage done against him came in the second inning as Leody Taveras smacked a two-run single and Corey Seager added a two-run double. Bibee generated 14 swings and misses on 94 pitches on the evening, registering a CSW of 30 percent. He'll look to bounce back as he carries a 3.46 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and a 150/33 K/BB ratio into Wednesday's matchup against the Royals.
Taveras opened the scoring in the ballgame with a two-run single off of Tanner Bibee in the second inning. He then swiped second base and raced around to score on Corey Seager's two-run double. While his bat has perked up a bit over the past few weeks, it has been a rough season overall for Taveras who is hitting just .229/.286/.349 with nine homers, 37 RBI and 15 stolen bases (in 20 attempts).