No Longer Hamstrung: Michael Young Returns to Rangers Lineup as DH, Batting Second

ARLINGTON - Shutout in consecutive games, the Rangers sure could use a shot of energy.

Well, Tuesday night, they’ll be Young again.

Just two weeks after suffering a significant left hamstring strain, Young is returning to the Rangers lineup. He will bat second and play DH today against Oakland. He intends to be back at third base on Friday when Los Angeles arrives in Arlington for a key three-game series.

“There is a sense of energy and a sense of excitement,” CF Marlon Byrd said. “His presence does that. You can only go so long with out your big bats in the lineup and when we saw his name in the lineup today, there was a spark of energy that everybody felt.”

Young, who has been hitting and doing some running for the last five days, awoke Tuesday feeling good and the idea of returning earlier-than-expected began to percolate in his mind. By the time he left his home for Rangers Ballpark, he was texting team officials that he wanted to test the hamstring out by running bases. After that went well, Young marched into manager Ron Washington’s office and said he wanted in the lineup.

He acknowledged, however, that he is at less than 100 percent in terms of strength and that there is a risk of further injuring the hamstring by playing. The comproise is that he will DH today and Wednesday and longer if necessary. He also will not run the bases at full speed.

“I feel good enough,” Young said. “I’d prefer to go right into the lineup at third base, but if I have to DH, that’s fine. The one thing I’ve learned about hamstrings is the injury possibility increases as the muscle fatigues, so maybe not standing and playing the position for nine innings will help reduce that. I know there is some risk involved, but my goal was to get in the lineup the second I was ready to play. I felt ready today. I wasn’t ready [Monday].”

Said Washington: “As usual, he’s ahead of schedule. He’s pretty excited, and we’re pretty excited. We trust Michael to control himself. He feels like he’s ready to go. The doctors feel like he’s ready to go. So we’re going to let him go. We’re certainly not going to push anything when he’s on the base paths. We might be a little quick with our stop sign in some situations. Because once he gets going, we certainly don’t want him to have to quickly stop.”

While the Rangers offense seemed to rally for a while after Young went out of the lineup, lately the absence of their leading hitter and OF Josh Hamilton (pinched nerve in back) has caught up to them. The Rangers, who scored at least 10 runs in each of three consecutive games in Cleveland, have scored a total of just 10 runs in their last four games.The Rangers have been shutout three times in their last 10 games after getting blanked just six times in their first 130 games.

Young, who is sixth in the AL in hitting at .322, leads the Rangers in on-base-plus-slugging percentage at .900. He ranks 12th in the AL in that department.

Hamilton, who is not expected to return before Friday, began hitting off a tee and some soft tosses on Tuesday.