MLB Trade Retrospective: Texas Rangers Acquire Cole Hamels

An Epic Five-Game ALDS

The Rangers’ post-season series with the Blue Jays was epic. Gallardo started and won the first games of the ALDS and Jake Diekman pitched two scoreless innings and picked up a Hold. Hamels was on the bump for Game 2 and pitched seven strong innings, allowing just two runs. Diekman took over in the ninth and pitched two scoreless innings. The game ended up going 14 innings, with the Rangers eventually beating senior citizen LaTroy Hawkins on RBI singles by Hanser Alberto and Delino DeShields.

The series shifted back to Texas with the Rangers leading two games to zero. The Blue Jays won Games 3 and 4 to tie it up and Diekman was touched for a run on two hits in one inning of work in Game 4.

Fittingly, Cole Hamels was on the hill for Game 5. This is what the Rangers had acquired him for, pitching the big game. The Rangers took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh inning on one of the strangest post-season plays in history. With the score tied, Rougned Odor was on third base with Shin-Soo Choo at the dish. The count was 1-2 and there were two outs. The next pitch was a ball. When catcher Russell Martin threw the ball back to the pitcher, Choo happened to have his bat out in front of the plate as he adjusted the brace on his left arm. Martin’s throw hit off of Choo’s bat, allowing Odor to score.

The Rangers were nine outs away from advancing to the ALCS and had their in-season acquisition on the mound. Unfortunately for Hamels and Rangers’ fans, chaos was about to ensue. Russell Martin reached on an error by Elvis Andrus. Kevin Pillar reached on an error by Mitch Moreland. Ryan Goins reached on another error by Andres and the bases were loaded. Rangers’ manager Jeff Banister stuck with Hamels and was rewarded when Ben Revere grounded into a force out at home.

The Rangers still led, but Hamels’ time on the mound was done. In came Sam Dyson. Dyson got Josh Donaldson to pop out for what looked to be an easy out, but the ball dropped in short right field over the head of Odor. He recovered in time to get the force at second, but a run scored and the game was tied. That led to this moment, known as “The Bat Flip Heard ‘Round the World.”

That three-run bomb by Jose Bautista effectively ended the Rangers’ season. They still had two innings to come back from the three-run deficit, but they couldn’t put any runs on the board and were eliminated from the playoffs.

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