A day later, the Texas Rangers are still feeling the sting of nightmarish loss vs. Rays

WASHINGTON — Not surprisingly, a late-night flight and little sleep did not make the Rangers feel any better about the events that led to Thursday’s loss on a two-run, walkoff infield single.

If anything, they’d only replayed the nightmarish finish over and over.

To refresh, if it isn’t still vivid enough: With two outs, two strikes and the bases loaded in the ninth inning Thursday, Tampa Bay’s Taylor Walls bounced a ball to the right side that should have been a routine grounder for Marcus Semien.

Rangers

But … with Semien playing shaded up the middle, neophyte first baseman Josh Smith — a middle infielder by nature — was playing well off the bag and attempted unsuccessfully to get the ball. Pitcher Robert Garcia had turned to watch the play develop rather than break for first on contact. And Semien was left holding the ball with nowhere to throw. When he checked third base to make sure the winning run had held there, he was surprised to see Junior Caminero already halfway past third and heading home. Semien double-clutched, pivoted and threw home too late to get the runner.

Manager Bruce Bochy’s best explanation centered on Smith’s lack of experience at first and on another pitcher not getting to first quickly enough.

“We talked about what we can do differently,” Bochy said of a conversation with infield instructor Corey Ragsdale. “A big part of it was probably a little lack of experience with [Smith]. I totally get what he’s saying. He did not want the ball to get into the outfield because the game would have been over. But I think we have to give up a little of what we want to do to prevent that from happening.

“Now, we can’t move the first baseman that far over, especially with the left-hander out there. You just get a big hole there. So, we’ve talked about the adjustments we want to make.”

Perhaps this is the strangest part from a bizarre ending: It’s not the first time they’ve lost a game that they led with two outs in the ninth on a multirun infield single. In 1999, they lost one when Rafael Palmeiro dived to stop a chopper and tried to flip it to John Wetteland on the run. The throw hit off Wetteland’s glove and scooted away, allowing a second run to score.

The opposing manager: Bochy, who was skippering San Diego at the time.

“I was on the good side?” Bochy asked.

Yeah, for whatever consolation that provides.

After shutout loss vs. Nationals, maybe this is just who the 2025 Texas Rangers are