Entering play on Friday night, no one needed a big game more than the Rangers unofficial captain, Marcus Semien.

Semien came into the game 10-70 in his last 21 games, and on the season, was hitting an American League worst .173.

However, you couldn’t tell just by watching Friday’s game.

Semien capped off a huge four-hit night with a dagger, bringing a two-run home run as he led the Rangers 11-run offensive explosion in a blowout win over the Cardinals.

“I think as much as anything, this relaxes them,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said when speaking about the offense.

“They know it’s there, they know they have it in them, but we have to put this behind us and come out and play tomorrow and try to put together a good ballgame and hopefully this is something that will give them a lot of confidence and get them swinging the bats the way we know they can.

“Great job, I thought of battling up there again with two outs, doing good things to set up rallies, just a well-played game by the fellas”.

The Rangers got things started early as Josh Jung laced a two-out RBI single in the first as part of a three-hit, three-RBI night for the former Red Raider on Texas Tech night.

In the second, Sam Haggerty flipped a two-RBI triple down the right field line for the first of his career-high tying three hits and two of his three RBI on the night.

Wyatt Langford was the very next batter, and he belted his team-leading 11th home run into the seats in left field to make it 5-0.

It wasn’t until the 6th that Texas found the scoreboard again, but it was three RBI singles from Semien, Haggerty, and Jung that put the game away, making it 9-0.

In the 7th, Marcus Semien sent a two-run shot over the left field wall that had to take what must have been a 1,000-pound weight off his back, a theme that the Rangers offense as a whole hopes to take from tonight.

“I think for all of them with what we’ve been through, like I was talking about, it just relaxes and takes some pressure off them,” Bochy said.

“They feel it, they’re hearing the outside noise and a lot of talk about this offense, we’ve been in a rut, we gotta dig ourselves out, and this was a good start”.