Texas Rangers Defense — Especially Rookie Evan Carter — Comes Up Huge Again In ALCS Opener
HOUSTON — A couple of months back, the Texas Rangers held an impromptu meeting.
Third baseman Josh Jung doesn't remember exactly who called the meeting — whether it was associate manager Will Venable, first base coach Corey Ragsdale, or third base coach Tony Beasley.
Frankly, after the Rangers' 2-0 ALCS Game 1 win Sunday night over the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park, the exact details don't matter.
But the meeting came in quite handy when the Rangers pulled off a massive double play in the eighth inning with a runner on and no outs.
The entire play highlighted what has helped propel the Rangers to a 6-0 postseason run and three wins from their first World Series appearance in 12 years. Game 2 of the ALCS is at 3:37 p.m. Monday at Minute Maid Park.
First, there was rookie left fielder Evan Carter navigating Minute Maid Park's wacky left field for the first time, replete with the short-porch Crawford Boxes and the "Funky Corner" hidden in the shadows in left-center. That's where Carter made a leaping, game-saving catch up against the wall on Alex Bregman's towering fly ball to the 366-foot marker.
Jose Altuve, who led off with a walk, was racing around second base thinking Carter would fail to make the play. But Carter made the catch, and Altuve, in his shock and haste to get back to first to avoid being doubled-up, forgot to re-touch second base. Altuve was parallel with and inside the bag, and likely thought he hadn't passed the bag. But any motion towards third requires the runner to re-touch the base.
Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien was watching Altuve's every move.
"I always watch to see what the runner does just because sometimes the umpires are looking at the ball. And that’s exactly what [second base umpire] Doug [Eddings] told me. He was looking at the ball, he didn’t see it," Semien said. "So I tried to remind him, and he still called him safe, but luckily that’s a play we can review."
It's a baserunning mistake Semien acknowledged making himself, and one the club reviews in Spring Training.
"And all of sudden in the ALCS it comes up," he added. "I just felt like it didn’t look right and luckily New York saw that too. We’ll take it. It’s a crazy play where that could have been a home run or an extra-base hit and we end up getting two outs."
The double play allowed Aroldis Chapman to face Yordan Alvarez with two outs and the bases empty, instead of, at the very least, a runner on and two outs, or at the very worst, a run in and the tying run at second. Instead, Alvarez tapped out to first to end the eighth as the turn of events deflated the sold-out MMP crowd.
Rangers center fielder Leody Taveras, whose first-career postseason homer in the fifth gave Texas a 2-0 lead, had a great view of Carter's game-changing catch. Carter made several excellent catches throughout the game, including a couple in the first inning.
"That corner is hard, but the talent this guy has is something special," Taveras said of Carter. "I’m not surprised with what he can do. It’s a privilege for us to have a guy like him. I was so excited, honestly. I said, ‘Let’s go!’"
How is Carter, who made his MLB debut on Sept 8, becoming a postseason hero?
"It’s a gift that God gave him," Taveras said. "It’s something special.”
Jung was watching Altuve at second, too, but didn't see clearly if Altuve re-touched the bag.
"In my mind, it was no matter what, throw it to second just in case we can challenge, but Marcus was right there. He saw the whole thing happen," Jung said. "It's kind of crazy. We were just doing some ball talk about always throwing the ball in, especially in that situation.
"We actually talked about that exact situation — about re-touching [the bag] offensively, but also defensively. Always throw it to the base, touch it, and look at the umpire, and then if we can challenge, challenge. It's crazy how it played out in that situation. It ended up being a big turning point for us."
The club had a similar play occur in the game a couple of months back, which prompted the discussion, Jung said.
"It became a point of emphasis. It's a baseball play. It's not going to happen every single day. But knowing the rule in the back of our heads, in case we see something," he said. "I thought there was a chance. Marcus was adamant that he did not re-touch."
As for Carter handling Minute Maid Park's odd left-field nooks and crannies, Semien remains in awe.
"It’s a tough place to play left field obviously. You want to kind of play close to left-center and track balls down the line, and he did that," Semien said. "And then he made the play on Bregman with that funky wall, so great job by him, first time in this building. He’ll play a lot of games in this building."
You can follow Stefan Stevenson on Twitter @StefanVersusTex.
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