Early in the season, the Texas Rangers had a little stretch of games where they were getting all the breaks and winning some games in really crazy, unbelievable ways.
There was a walk-off walk. The next night, there was another walk-off. A couple of weeks later, there yet another one that was only possible because of a game-extending error on a routine play against Seattle.
On Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins, the Rangers had a chance to pull two games above .500 and win their sixth game in seven days, and for eight innings it seemed like they were well on their way. With closer Joakim Soria on the mound to close the game out in the bottom of the ninth, it seemed a lock as Soria was perfect in save situations heading into the game.
But things turned sour quickly with the help of some pretty unorthodox plays. After the Twins tied the game off Soria, it seemed the game would be heading to extra innings after the Rangers failed to capitalize on a leadoff triple from Alex Rios to extend their one-run lead in the top of the ninth.
A two-out grounder to Adrian Beltre should've been the inning ender, but instead Eduardo Nunez, for some reason, ran to third on the ball and probably confused Beltre a bit who could've easily made the throw to first for the third out. Instead, Nunez ran about five feet out of the baseline and made a stabbing slide into third as the umpires ruled Beltre never made a tag attempt so Nunez wasn't technically "avoiding a tag." Fact is, Beltre should've just thrown to first, but he didn't, and the game was extended. After an intentional walk to load the bases, Danny Santana hit a little nubber back to the mound, which Soria bobbled, bobbled again and then didn't even make a throw as the Twins won on a walk-off error.
Things like that happen in baseball, but with the Rangers on the roll they were on, that was a tough one to take. But hey, I guess it was karma.
