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About Last Night: Michael Young Takes Blame for Botched Double Steal In Rangers 3-1 Loss At Seattle

Posted on July 10th, 2009 1:45pm by Evan Grant
Filed under AL West race, Baseball, Game Recap, Talkin' baseball, Texas Rangers

SEATTLE - Manager Ron Washington said Felix Hernandez was as good as he’s ever seen him on Thursday night, which is why the Rangers tried to steal an extra run in the sixth inning. Having runners with decent speed on the corners, two outs and two strikes on Andruw Jones, it seemed like the perfect situation to create something and maybe even rattle Hernandez in the process.

That’s why Washington put on a sign for a delayed double steal with Josh Hamilton taking off from first and Michael Young then breaking for home. The play is supposed to work like this: Hamilton breaks on the pitch; as soon as the catcher cocks his arm to throw to second, Young breaks for home. Young beats throw home and scores run. If Hamilton gets caught in a rundown, so be it.

The only problem was Young didn’t break when C Rob Johnson cocked the arm. He started, stopped, and by that time, the Mariners had a chance to create a rundown and prevent Young from scoring at all. That’s exactly what they did. Young was tagged out trying to slide back into third.

“It was my mistake,” Young said. “I thought the way he popped up, he was going to pump fake, at least that’s the way I read his body language. But that’s my bad. The second he goes toward second, I’ve got to go. I just didn’t react the right way.”

The Rangers had already created one run in the inning with a double steal. Ian Kinsler broke for second and Young broke for third with Hamilton at bat. Then, as Hamilton walked, Ball Four got away from Johnson. Kinsler raced home to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The sixth was the only time the Rangers got a runner even as far as second base.

Hernandez went eight innings and served notice that, in the crowded AL West, he might be the starting pitcher who could make a real difference. Since May 24, he is now 5-0 with a 1.19 ERA and a .195 opponents batting average in nine starts. He has averaged 7.2 innings in those nine starts.

After allowing the Rangers the brief opportunity in the sixth, he retired his final six batters in order.

5 Comments to “About Last Night: Michael Young Takes Blame for Botched Double Steal In Rangers 3-1 Loss At Seattle”

Jacob @ July 10th, 2009 at 2:27 pm

I still love the idea, even though Mike didn’t execute. With a pitcher like King, you can’t sit back and wait for the 3 run homer, you have to make things happen.
tmw80 @ July 10th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

It was a good call by Washington, it just didn’t work out. I wish we would do more of that, as we seem to have guys that are good on the bases for the most part.
gbm @ July 10th, 2009 at 3:26 pm

gutsy call … i liked it … too bad it did not work out, that might of been the only chance of sneaking something like that past a team … now they are going to be aware the rangers are willing to try it …

a suicide squeeze would of been cool as well
Kyle @ July 10th, 2009 at 4:20 pm

It certainly would have been suicide since there were 2 outs at the time
Weekend In Review @ July 13th, 2009 at 2:45 pm

[...] The Ranges lost three of four to the Mariners, including a disappointing opener that got away after a botched double-steal and a late-inning Franklin Gutierrez homer. So for those that were left with a lust for blood after frustrating series that put the Rangers [...]