Inside The Rangers

'Baffling' Mistakes Cost Rangers in 8-4 Loss vs Red Sox

The Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox combined for an unpleasant display of baseball, with too many mistakes costing the Rangers in the end.

Chris Halicke

There may not be a series in the entire Major League Baseball season that has a worse display of fundamentals than the three recent games between the Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox. On Friday night, the Rangers failed multiple times on the basepaths and botched a common baseball play. On Saturday, Boston committed an abysmal five errors in the field.

On Monday, the two teams continued their respective struggles.

The Red Sox came away with an 8-4 victory over the Rangers on a walk-off grand slam by Travis Shaw in the 11th inning. Prior to that, the Red Sox committed two more errors and their bullpen blew a game that should have been won in a traditional nine innings. The Rangers, however, had the blunder of the game.

Trailing 2-1 in the fifth inning, the Rangers had runners on first and third base with one out. Yonny Hernandez was given the sign to lay down a soft bunt for a safety squeeze, all but guaranteeing a tying run for the Rangers.

Instead, Hernandez bunted the ball hard back to the pitcher. Nick Solak was caught in between third and home, and was eventually tagged out. Meanwhile, Hernandez was far too aggressive, making his way nearly to second base even though Jose Trevino was occupying the base.

The Red Sox caught Hernandez in a run down and tagged him out for an inning-ending double play.

What makes the situation even worse is Hernandez had the same exact scenario on Friday night: lay down a soft bunt with runners on first and third with one out. Hernandez bunted that ball hard as well, failing to properly execute the play.

Manager Chris Woodward is a very patient manager. However, the Rangers skipper showed some very visible frustration in the dugout after the botched play on Monday afternoon.

"I'm as patient as it comes. I take a lot of pride in being patient, especially with younger players," Woodward said. "I played this game for a long time. I know how difficult it is. I know you can't go up there and execute every time you want. But that, to me, I'm not sure how to describe that.

"When something has been explained to you, and then you have the opportunity to go back out and do it again and you make the same mistake ... the fact that he bunted it hard again, makes — there was nothing lost in translation. It was explained to him basically on a white board. That's why I was frustrated. ... That's a mental error that can't happen at this level."

Woodward spoke at further length about the play after the game, using more words like, "baffling" and "careless".

But the Rangers found a way to claw back into the game. Trailing 3-1 in the ninth inning, Texas put together a rally against Red Sox closer Matt Barnes. Nathaniel Lowe and DJ Peters led off the frame with back-to-back singles. Jason Martin struck out swinging, and it looked like the inning was about to come to an end when Nick Solak hit a grounder up the middle.

Xander Bogaerts fielded the ball with a diving stop, but his flip to second base was low, allowing all runners to reach base safely. With the bases loaded, Andy Ibáñez hit a ground-rule double to the right-center gap, tying the game at 3-3.

The Rangers looked like they were going to steal the game in the 10th inning. Lowe drove in their "ghost runner" from second base with a softly hit single in the hole at shortstop. In the bottom of the inning, Dennis Santana go two quick outs, with the second coming on an outstanding defensive play by Kiner-Falefa and Trevino, cutting down the runner trying to score from third base.

Santana got ahead of Rafael Devers with a 0-2 count, but Santana hung a breaking ball and Devers hit a fly ball to the deepest part of Fenway Park. Bogaerts scored from first base easily, tying the game.

The Rangers failed to score in the top of the 11th inning, and Santana led off Boston's half of the frame with a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt by Christian Vázquez, allowing him to reach base. The Rangers intentionally walked Alex Verdugo, then Shaw followed with his grand slam, ending the game emphatically. 

"There was some good [from today]," Woodward said. "We fought. We battled. We didn't quit ... I'm proud of that for the entire team. But we've gotta find a way to execute in those [critical] moments, or at least have a game plan to execute."

The Rangers (43-81) travel to Cleveland for their first meeting of the season with the Indians (61-61) on Tuesday. Rangers southpaw Taylor Hearn (2-4, 3.97 ERA) is scheduled to face Cleveland right-hander Eli Morgan (2-5, 5.80 ERA).

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Chris Halicke
CHRIS HALICKE

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