CHICAGO -- If there¡¯s one thing the Bruce Bochy-era Texas Rangers have been good at, it¡¯s been dominating the fundamentals.
After all, it¡¯s one of the core principles of the organization. The three -- alongside ¡°compete with passion¡± and ¡°be a good teammate¡± -- adorn the walls of the clubhouse at Globe Life Field and at the Spring Training complex in Surprise, Ariz.
On Tuesday night against the Cubs, the fundamentals were unusually lacking. The Rangers recorded three fielding errors in the 10-6 loss at Wrigley Field, the final two of which came when the game was tied in the eighth inning.
Errors by Leody Taveras and Josh Jung in the bottom of the eighth led to four unearned runs off of reliever Chris Martin, which was ultimately the difference in the game.
¡°I think when you look at that last inning, Leo just misplayed that ball,¡± Bochy said. ¡°He just misjudged it. Martin got the ground ball [to Jung] and we couldn¡¯t come up with that. That's what's frustrating about it. It just got away from us. We just did not play good defense.¡±
Taveras did not blame the Chicago winds for his misplay on a fly ball off the bat of Ian Happ, which was the first error of the eighth inning. Though the ball had an expected batting average of .690 according to Statcast, it was still a fairly routine fly ball that Taveras should have caught easily.
¡°I just didn¡¯t read it the right way,¡± Taveras said. ¡°I don¡¯t think it was the wind, it was me. I can make that play.¡±
Jung, who was a homer shy of the cycle in his return from the injured list, also made an uncharacteristic fielding error at third base, loading the bases and leading to the go-ahead runs in the eighth. Jung only made three total errors in 352 ? innings in the field in 2024.
¡°The one thing we've been doing is playing good defense,¡± Bochy said. ¡°We've been doing a good job. Again, Leo just misjudged that ball. You don't like to see it there in the eighth inning, but Martin was doing a pretty good job working his way out of it. He got the ground ball and didn't quite come up with that.
¡°That's part of the game you have to deal with sometimes. It doesn't happen very often with us, but I love the way they fought back. It was another cold night, but we put up some pretty good at-bats when we needed it.¡±