The Texas Rangers fielded the American League’s best offense last season. It worked pretty well. It led to a World Series trophy and a whole heap of individual and team awards.

Surely, at some point, the Texas bats will return to form. The Rangers hope so, at least, because it hasn’t been pretty otherwise.

Maybe the ninth inning of Saturday’s 8-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds is the prequel to an eventual eruption. The Rangers began the final frame with exactly one hit and zero runs but scored four times on a Davis Wendzel two-run home run (the first of his career), a solo shot from Corey Seager (his first since April 3) and an RBI double from Josh Smith (his second extra-base hit of the day). Leody Taveras, Nathaniel Lowe and Wyatt Langford each also singled.

Because, outside of that, Saturday was bleak. It’s been like that for a bit now. The Rangers have scored the league’s ninth-fewest runs (45) and posted the league’s 20th-best OPS (.662) since April 13 — a 9-2 loss to the Houston Astros that kickstarted a 6-8 stretch.

Their offense has relied on solo home runs lately, too; it took two from Evan Carter and Marcus Semien to beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-1 on Friday, and of their three runs in Thursday’s loss to the Mariners, two came via solo shots.

But, like starter Andrew Heaney said after the Rangers’ 4-3 loss to Seattle on Thursday, “Solo homers don’t beat you, two-runs can.” The Rangers — who gave up a pair of two-run home runs in Saturday’s loss — can attest to that. Solo home runs can only get a team so far if there’s no one on base, and Texas has the league’s third-worst on-base percentage (.280) since that April 13 loss to Houston. That doesn’t factor in Saturday’s loss to the Reds in which Texas was held to just one hit and one walk by Cincinnati starter Hunter Greene.

Then they erupted in the ninth. Now they just have to keep that up.

Here are four thoughts from the loss.

Worst way to end the day: Rangers starter Michael Lorenzen had thrown 96 pitches and allowed three earned runs through six innings. The Rangers, despite having Jose Ureña warmed up in the bullpen, opted to send Lorenzen out to start the seventh.

He did not record an out and left with Texas in a 5-0 hole.