San Francisco Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos played the role of the hero in Sunday’s game against the Texas Rangers, walking it off in the bottom of the ninth inning. But this was far from your average walk-off; instead, it largely came as a result of an absolute meltdown from the Rangers in the field.
Ramos stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom half of the ninth inning and wasted zero time, swinging at the first pitch he saw and hitting a slow ground ball to the third base side of the pitcher’s mound.
Rangers reliever Luke Jackson did a great job of getting to the ball quickly, so much so that a perfect throw from Jackson would have gotten Ramos out at first.
Unfortunately for Rangers fans, it was far from a perfect throw from Jackson. Instead, the ball flew past Jake Burger at first and deep into foul territory in right field.
This prompted Ramos to take it to second gear on the base paths, attempting to get to third base and beat Burger’s throw to the hot corner.
Burger then further compounded things, throwing it past Josh Smith covering the bag at third, which allowed Ramos to score without a throw at home to win the game.
Calling the madness for the Giants broadcast on NBC Sports Bay Area were Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow, who could hardly contain their excitement as the Rangers continuously fumbled with the ball in the field.
“Ramos is 1-2, taps this one to third,” said Kuiper on the call of the play. “And he sends it down the right field line! Ramos is on the move! And he is gonna stop… No, now he’s gonna head to third! Here’s the throw… It gets by him! Here comes Ramos, this game is over!”
Moments after the dust settled and Ramos had won the game, Kuiper asked Krukow when the last time he had seen a walk-off Little League home run, which Krukow claimed he last saw when “his oldest son was 10 years old” playing as a child.
“The Giants win the game on a Little League home run. Tell me you have seen that one before,” said Kuiper to Krukow.
“Well, not since my oldest son was 10 years old,” joked Krukow. “Unbelievable!”
Similarly, the Rangers’ broadcast team over on Rangers Sports Network was baffled that a Major League Baseball game ended in this fashion, highlighting just how big of a mess the Rangers’ defense made of the final play.
“That’s a crazy way to end a Major League Baseball game,” said Rangers color analyst Mike Bacsik.
“In a series that saw tremendous defensive plays… Just one after another. That’s a heartbreaking way to drop the finale in San Francisco. My goodness,” said Rangers play-by-play man Dave Raymond.
At some point, either Burger or Jackson should have simply eaten it and held onto the ball to avoid this kind of situation from happening. But instead, we now have one of the most glaring defensive lowlights of the season.
The Rangers will look to regroup from a series loss to the Giants when they return home to face off against the Athletics on Monday. The Giants, meanwhile, will look to continue their positive momentum thus far this season in their next upcoming series against the San Diego Padres, which starts on Tuesday.