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Texas Rangers reliever Will Smith might have made the best defensive play of his career Tuesday night.
He couldn’t come up a better one.
“Maybe. I don’t know,” Smith admitted with a smile. “I’ve had a couple of bunt plays like that before, but that might have been my first glove-flip. Maybe.”
With two out and the Rangers clinging to a 1-0 lead over the New York Mets, Jeff McNeil laid down a bunt down the first-base line. Smith made a mad dash for the rolling baseball, snagging it on the grass with his right-handed glove.
There was no time to make a transfer to his left hand for a toss, so Smith flipped his glove around and slung the ball low toward first. Nathaniel Lowe made a nice snag, avoided the hard-charging McNeil to get the final out of the eighth inning.
“I got extremely lucky,” Smith said. “The glove-flip just went the way it was supposed to and Nate made good play on catching it.”
The play was big. As was the timing. Smith acknowledged both when assessing its importance.
“One-run game, the situation,” Smith said. “Maybe. I don’t know. I was happy.”
The Rangers (75-57) held on for the 2-1 win, with Aroldis Chapman getting the save despite giving up a solo home run with two outs in the ninth. Texas added a much-needed insurance run in the top of the inning.
It wasn’t that long ago that Texas manager Bruce Bochy was turning to Smith for saves in the ninth, with Chapman acting as the setup man. Several poor outings from Smith – he’s the first to admit his struggles – reversed those roles for now.
Smith opened the current road trip with his fourth blown save of the season at the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had allowed runners to score in three of his four previous appearances, five of seven and six of nine. His ERA in that span went from 2.70 to 4.24.
Smith understands why Bochy turned to Chapman. It’s also true that holding leads in the eighth can be just as important as the last frame. For Smith to keep the Mets scoreless with his arm and glove was telling for a club trying to keep pace in the American League West.
So were the smiles that immediately sprung from Smith’s face, as well as the other Rangers on the field, after the defensive gem. A hero’s welcome was waiting from Smith’s teammates in the dugout.
The Rangers have won three of four games since an eight-game skid, including the first two in New York. Texas moved into a three-way tie for first-place in the AL West with the Seattle Mariners (75-57) and Houston Astros (76-58).
“We’re not gonna give up. We’re not gonna quit,” Smith said. “These things happen throughout the year. When they happen in August and September, it’s a kind of a bigger deal. If this were to happen in the first month of the season, it probably wouldn’t have been that big a deal.
“We’re coming down the stretch, we’re trying to win as many games, we’re trying to get the lead back. We’ve got to keep going and figure it out.”
Smith is doing the same.
You can follow Art Garcia on Twitter @ArtGarcia92.
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