An intentionally misplayed pop fly from Rangers first baseman Ronald Guzman on Thursday ignited debate about the lengths players should go in the pursuit of milestones for themselves or their teammates.
In the ninth inning against the Red Sox, with left-hander Mike Minor one strikeout away from No. 200 on the season, Chris Owings skied a ball between first and home plate. Guzman could have made the catch, but he instead let the ball fall to run the count to 1-2. Minor then struck out Owings to achieve his goal.
At the time of the popup, Minor was at 124 pitches, meaning he may not have been able to see another batter. Manager Chris Woodward said afterward he was close to taking Minor out on several occasions. Also of note: Neither the Rangers nor Red Sox have a chance to make the playoffs, and the Rangers held a two-run lead with no one on base.
Still, some analysts characterized the maneuver as cheap and unprofessional. Woodward, though, felt it was fair game given how the Red Sox approached the previous inning. And Minor after the game took to Twitter to blast a critical Boston Globe reporter.
“I didn’t love the idea that we dropped a popup at the end,” Woodward told reporters, “but on the other side of that, they swung at three pitches in a row in the eighth inning down by two.
“If they have any beef with that … they chose to not try to win the game as well.”
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With his outing Thursday, Minor finished the season with 208 1/3 innings pitched, 200 strikeouts and a 3.59 ERA. His previous best strikeout tally was 181, which he achieved in 2013 with the Braves.
Here are some of the other reactions to the play that got him to 200:
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