How 3 errors, 10 walks and ‘a Walmart glove’ beat Texas Rangers despite 8 stolen bases
For all those Texas Rangers fans disappointed with what they feel is a shortfall of televised spring-training games, just be glad Thursday’s game wasn’t on the tube.
“Ten walks and three errors, obviously, isn’t going to win a lot of ballgames,” manager Chris Woodward said.
Indeed, the Rangers lost 11-10 to the San Diego Padres, and, yes, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit another homer against them. Just to get this out of the way: It wasn’t a grand slam on a 3-0 pitch, just a three-run homer, and the Padres were trailing when he hit it.
But the defense was sloppy, with Curtis Terry apparently using a first baseman’s glove from a discount store. The pitching was mostly sloppy, and plate ump Gabe Morales was really sloppy.
And it kept getting chillier and windier over the 3 hours, 28 minutes it took to play the game.
The Rangers allowed five unearned runs on three errors. Four of the unearned runs came in the Padres’ five-run sixth, a rally fueled by Terry not catching a throw from third baseman Andy Ibanez.
There was a reason why Terry missed it.
“It went through his glove,” Woodward said. “It actually went through, like, the webbing of the glove. It broke the strings in his glove. I’m not sure if it was like a Walmart glove or what. It literally went through the webbing of a major-league glove. I’ve never seen it.”
Terry switched out gloves for one batter as the damaged glove was repaired. He got it back just in time to miss a line drive that should have been caught.
There was no blaming the glove on that one.
“It was hard-hit, slicing away from him,” Woodward said.
The Rangers lost despite out-hitting the Padres 16-7, in large part because they issued 10 walks to Padres hitters. One of three from Matt Bush, a control specialist, walked in a run. The Padres’ next run scored on a wild pitch by Spencer Patton.
San Diego had its own problems. Four of the five walked issued by Padres pitchers came from Opening Day starter Yu Darvish in three slow-as-molasses innings. They also saw the Rangers swipe eight bases — eight! — including three apiece by Charlie Culbertson and Adolis Garcia.
The forever-optimistic Woodward pulled that positive from the carnage.
“That’s what I really want to focus on,” he said. “We can clean up the walks, and we’ll fix guys’ gloves because balls were going through gloves. It was a little bit Twilight Zone-ish at times. The way we handled and our at-bats and kept fighting, I was really really impressed. The fearlessness on the bases is what we’re all about.”
