SAN FRANCISCO — Some games defy explanation. This one would have, too, if not for the brilliant mind of Luke Jackson.
Still shaking his head 20 minutes after the Rangers suffered a 3-2 walkoff loss to San Francisco that ended on a bases-empty infield single and two throwing errors, Jackson decided to take a whirl at explaining what happened and this is what he came up with:
“It was quite literally Lemony Snicket’s series of unfortunate events,” he said, referencing the children’s book series. “I threw one pitch, spent most of my time on the field on my back and we lost.”
Related:Texas Rangers walk themselves off with defensive meltdown in ninth inning vs. Giants
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Which is pretty much on point. But, we’re all about the public record, so for posterity’s sake, a little more detail. Jackson entered a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, threw a first pitch slider to Heliot Ramos, who tapped it back between the mound and the third base line at 58.8 mph. Exit velocity isn’t everything sometimes. But stay with us. It gets more bizarre.
Jackson pounced off the mound, fielded and threw to first while falling backward. The ball was well wide of first base, allowing Ramos to go to second. As Jake Burger chased it down, Ramos slowed up at second only to start up again when the ball took a funny bounce.
Given the large amount of foul territory at Oracle Park, it forced Burger to make a longer throw than he ever has and his throw to third tailed away from Josh Smith toward the outfield side of the bag. Jackson, by now off his back, had scrambled behind third to back up the base, but the ball took another Oracle hop and by the time he corralled it, Ramos was diving head first into home with the Little League homer.
“I keep running it back in my head,” Burger said of his approach to the play. “And I’m not sure I would do it any differently. That is the winning run. And if he gets to third base with no outs, he’s got a great chance to score. So I was trying to be as aggressive as I could without looking like my hair is on fire.”
Burger is bald, so “hair on fire,” is kind of a scary thought with him. But it was his intent that counted when it came to describing the play.
According to Baseball Reference Stathead, the only other occasion on which a game ended on a bases-empty single came in 1997 when a liner by Oakland’s Jason McDonald got by Yankees’ right fielder Paul O’Neill for a three-base error.
So, yay, history?
“It’s gotta be right up there,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said when asked where this finish ranks in weird ones he’s seen in 37 years of playing or managing in the majors. “Luke made a good pitch, got a dribbler and we got walked off. He made a hell of an effort, a great effort.”
On the other end was Giants manager Bob Melvin, who has 22 years of managing and a decade as a player, and, nope, he hadn’t seen anything like that either. He didn’t even wait for a question. Said it as he was walking into his postgame presser.
“It was just kind of crazy all the way around,” he said. “We didn’t swing the bats well early and after that not so good either, but we hung around long enough to find a way to win a game. And that’s kind of a new way.”
This could all be chalked up to baseball zaniness and one day the Rangers will laugh about it. One day. Just not Sunday. Not when it became the Rangers’ third consecutive loss that ended with an opponent getting an ice bucket bath on the field. It also ended a 2-4 road trip that saw the Rangers fall out of first place in the American League West and worsened their 2025 road record to 5-10.
About the only thing they could take solace in — maybe — was that it spared them a day of too many questions about the absent offense. There were some signs of life there. Primitive life, but evolution starts with a crawl before a run. The Rangers, who entered the game last in baseball in batting average with two strikes, had nine hits with two strikes, the most they’ve had in a game since May 2023. That was good.
That was the positive side. On the flip side, the Rangers went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left Joc Pederson stranded at third after his leadoff triple in the sixth. After the triple, Adolis García chased three pitches well off the plate for a strikeout; Marcus Semien bounced the first pitch he saw, which was off the plate, to first; and Nick Ahmed, who had entered the game after Josh Jung lacerated his index finger, popped up on a fastball right down the middle.
But, hey, details. Steps are steps. No matter how small. And Bochy saw some in his offense Sunday.
“When guys start getting hits with two strikes the way they did today, that’s something they can build on,” Bochy said, explaining why he felt a bit encouraged even after such a disheartening loss.
“That’s an area that we were having struggles with. What you want to do is create more opportunities. That’s what we did today. So, yes, I’m encouraged. You try to find a silver lining when you are going through a tough stretch, and that’s one.”
Besides, silver linings are a lot more pleasant to discuss than a series of unfortunate events. And the Rangers have had a lot of unfortunate events lately. Though Sunday’s might just top them all.
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