HOUSTON (AP) 鈥� Corey Seager is out of the lineup for the Texas Rangers in the opener of a three-game series at Houston, some extra down time after a day off for team as the battles his .
Ezequiel Duran is set to start at shortstop and bat second against the Astros on Friday night. Seager has been the No. 3 hitter most of the season.
Seager is hitless in his last seven games, part of a longer 0-for-27 slide that is a career-worst and includes 11 strikeouts.
While he has started 42 of the Rangers鈥� 43 games, Seager has said he feels fine physically. If he doesn’t come off the bench against the Astros, it will end a streak of 24 games played since the 32-year-old’s only game off this season April 16.
Seager’s .179 batting average ranked 163rd out of 171 qualified batters going into Friday’s games. Seager, in the fifth season of a $325 million, 10-year deal, has 28 hits and 22 walks but 50 strikeouts account for 27.5% of his 182 plate appearances. He has seven home runs and 20 RBIs.
This is the latest in any of his 12 seasons that Seager, a .285 career hitter in 4,500 at-bats over 1,173 games, has been below .200. He never finished a game under that mark in eight of those seasons.
First-year Rangers manager Skip Schumaker had suggested that keeping Seager out of the lineup would coincide with a day off for the team.
Seager was hitting .194 after 10 games last year, which had been his latest sub-.200 mark, then went 14 for 30 (.467) his next eight games.
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