The Texas Rangers lead the world in outs recorded on the bases, and it's becoming quite an epidemic.
On Monday night, the Rangers were lucky to see Nomar Mazara homer and make up for a dumb out on the bases by Delino DeShields.
On Tuesday night, they weren't so lucky, and this time the blunder came from Rougned Odor.
Odor was on second base — in scoring position — with one out in the eighth inning of a game the Rangers led 1-0. On 90 percent of base hits, Odor is scoring from that spot, especially with two outs. So there's a shallow pop to right field from Adrian Beltre that second baseman Darwin Barney makes an over-the-shoulder catch on running out toward right.
For whatever reason, Odor decided it was a good idea to try for third base, Barney turned and fired to third baseman Josh Donaldson and got Odor by probably six or seven steps. It was the easiest double play you'll ever see, and it ended the Rangers' threat of tacking on a badly needed insurance run for closer Shawn Tolleson.
We all know what happened next.
Aggressive baserunning is a wonderful thing. Stupid baserunning isn't, and the Rangers have had a concerning balance between the two this year. The last two nights, we've seen lots of stupid from two guys who should be two of the team's best baserunners.
