Super-utility player Ezequiel Durán has been a big solution for the Texas Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Ezequiel Durán has been “The Solution" in so many ways for the playoff-chasing Texas Rangers this season.

That has proved to be more than just a slick nickname, one first given to him in jest while playing at home in the Dominican Republic last winter. There is even a T-shirt worn by Rangers players with that moniker boldly emblazoned above three different photos of the super-utility player who is now in their lineup pretty much every day.

“It would be a very different season without him being able to pick up and help out the team the way he has,” Texas starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi said.

Durán has started games at six different defensive positions while hitting .276 with 13 homers and a career-high 63 RBIs, after not going deep in his 90 games last season. He most recently has been the regular third baseman with Josh Jung on the 10-day injured list because of a left calf strain.

The Rangers (57-58) had an off day Thursday trailing AL West-leading Houston by 1 1/2 games. Texas was the division leader before getting swept by the Astros last weekend, part of a season-worst six-game losing streak that finally ended when Durán's four RBIs included the game-ending hit in a 5-4 win over San Francisco on Tuesday night.

The most starts for Durán are his 44 at shortstop since two-time World Series MVP Corey Seager has been on the IL three times. Durán has 20 starts at both third and second base, one at first, and seven each in left and right field. He has played multiple positions in 23 games, including both infield and outfield in 13 of those.

“He nicknamed himself ‘The Solution’ for a reason, and it’s no joke,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He has been that the whole year.”

When the T-shirts first appeared in the Rangers clubhouse in early June, Durán explained that a teammate in the Dominican Winter League told him he was the solution after playing three positions in as many innings in a game. Durán said he initially forgot about it, but embraced the nickname after getting to spring training with Texas and being put through some drills at catcher. He has not been in a game behind the plate, but retired 10 of 11 batters when pitching in relief four times last season.

Texas acquired Durán from the Yankees in a multiplayer deadline trade in 2021 that sent Joey Gallo to New York. Durán, who initially signed with the Yankees organization just a few weeks after his 18th birthday in 2017, made his big league debut with the Rangers in 2022 and played a key utility role in their only World Series championship in 2023.

His two-run double in the eighth inning Tuesday put Texas up 4-2. Then after the Giants tied it in the ninth, his RBI double in the bottom of the inning ended the game. That came a night after he went 4 for 4 in the series opener, with his homer in the ninth for the only Texas run.

“We would not even be where we're at in the playoff hunt without him. ... He's been integral to any success that we've had,” right fielder Brandon Nimmo said.

Schumaker can't argue with that.

“The energy he brings daily, it’s real. It’s not fake, it not fluff," Schumaker said. “With all these injuries that we’ve had, to have him do what he’s done has really kept us afloat where we’re at right now.”

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Texas Rangers' Ezequiel Duran follows through on a run-scoring single in the first inning a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in Arlington, Texas, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Texas Rangers' Ezequiel Duran celebrates his two-run double in the eighth inning a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in Arlington, Texas, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Texas Rangers third baseman Ezequiel Duran throws to first for the out after fielding a ground ball by Houston Astros' Jeremy Peña during the sixth inning of a baseball game Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

NEW YORK (AP) — In the past year, the U.S. has seen a jump in frequent marijuana users going to the hospital with a nausea and vomiting condition, according to a report released Thursday.

“The abruptness and sustained magnitude of the increase” is largely due to the condition getting its own diagnosis code last fall, which is providing a more accurate picture of what was an underrecognized problem, the authors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report wrote.

Hospital emergency room diagnoses of the condition, cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, rose 16% from last October to May of this year, federal researchers found.

The syndrome — seen in people who frequently use marijuana, especially smokers — is characterized by recurring nausea, uncontrollable vomiting and excruciating abdominal pain.

Past research has suggested that an estimated 2.75 million Americans suffer from it each year, and that hospital emergency room visits have been rising as daily recreational marijuana use has increased.

But experts also have said that the syndrome probably has been underdiagnosed, possibly because doctors may not have understood patients' marijuana use or because they attributed the suffering to a different illness.

Tracking the syndrome depended on combining diagnostic codes for nausea and vomiting, and for cannabis use. But last October, a new code was introduced to streamline the diagnosis.

In the new paper, researchers at the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control looked at emergency room data from about 7,500 healthcare facilities across the country through May. From January 2023 through the summer of 2025, almost 200,000 syndrome-related visits were made to the emergency departments.

The burden on ERs was relatively flat over most of the study period. But then it jumped in October, when the new code went into effect.

The largest increases were seen in people aged 15 to 24, in teenage girls and women, and in Black Americans and in American Indian and Alaska Natives.

The increase in younger people diagnosed with the syndrome “was actually one of the surprising findings for us,” said CDC's Alana Vivolo-Kantor, the study's first author.

“Because the assumption going in was, ‘well, how can they have chronic use?’” she said. “How early were they using cannabis?”

The findings suggest a need to raise awareness about the syndrome, particularly in teens and young adults. The report also suggests a need for more research, including into how newer high-potency THC and hemp-derived products — some of which come in the form of vapes, drinks and gummies — are being used by, and affecting, younger Americans, she said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FILE - Marijuana clones are shown for sale in Santa Ana, Calif., April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)