Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Jung was emotional earlier in the year after suffering a fractured wrist against the Tampa Bay Rays. He gave a prepared statement with content inspired by Kobe Bryant and questioned why he had suffered so many injuries so soon in his career. Jung vowed to continue to push forward, calling it the measure of a man.

Back playing his first series at Globe Life Field since his wrist injury, Jung explained how it felt.

“Being back home is great,” said Jung, “Just [to] embrace that competition back in the trenches with the guys I can’t ask for anything else, truly.”

Jung said his wrist felt great after his first few games back and that was all he could ask for.

Jung has played three seasons in the majors and has struggled with injuries. Before his first season, he tore the labrum in his left shoulder while he was lifting weights during the off-season. That delayed his debut until September and limited him to 26 games in that 2022 season.

His bad injury luck continued last season when he fractured his left thumb off a line drive against the Miami Marlins in early August. That forced him to miss 40 games.

This season Jung has missed 103 games so far due to injury.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy was happy with how Jung looked in his first few games back from the wrist injury.

“I really thought he was seeing the ball pretty good in St. Louis. He had one hit in two games but started getting good swings off, a nice job at third, so he looks good,” said Bochy.

Jung went 0 for 4 against the Red Sox on Friday in the Rangers’ 11-6 loss at Globe Life Field but made several excellent defensive plays at third base.

Jung agreed with Bochy but thought he could have been better against the Red Sox.

“I’ve been OK. Yesterday sucked. I was a bad player yesterday, but it’s just getting my feet back underneath me,” said Jung, “Kind of was trying to do a little too much yesterday, and I mean, that’s just what comes with it. But I’m just trying to dial that back in and get back in there and get after it today,” said Jung.

Injury updates

Bochy provided updates on pitchers Tyler Mahle and Jacob deGrom. Neither has started for the Rangers this season while rehabbing from a Tommy John surgery and a torn right ulnar collateral ligament.

Mahle has thrown five rehab stints for multiple Rangers minor-league affiliates, most recently on Wednesday when he gave up two runs off three hits in 4.2 innings of work with four strikeouts. It looks like it won’t be long until Rangers fans see his debut.

“He’s ready to go, good chance he’ll pitch on Tuesday here,” Bochy said of Mahle.

Degrom had a 45-pitch bullpen session on Saturday with his next step being facing live batters and appears to be on track to return by late August. On Saturday deGrom spoke about getting ready to face live batters.

“It’s definitely exciting, this is a long process, where I was at throwing these [bullpen sessions] I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel but now you’re gonna have somebody step in and that’s when it’s starting to get close. So definitely looking forward to it.”

Max Scherzer, who missed the start of the season after recovering from surgery on a herniated left disc in his back, heads to the 15-day injury list with right shoulder fatigue retroactive to July 31.

Bochy said there was some caution with Scherzer and the team wanted to play it safe and didn’t expect him to be out for more than 15 days.