Larry Brown Sports

Ian Kinsler is generally a master on the bases. 160 stolen bases in his career and only 33 caught stealing. He even has a +39.4 value as a baserunner throughout his career, according to Fangraphs. But this season his baserunning value is -0.9. I’m guessing all of the negative points came on the embarrassing slide seen above.

After singling to lead off the bottom of the first for the Rangers on Thursday against the Tigers, Kinsler went to third on a hit by Elvis Andrus. For some reason he totally screwed up on his head-first slide into third base and completely ate it. Nothing but dirt all in the face. His teammates in the dugout were laughing and loving it, and even Kinsler was smiling afterward and seemed to be a good sport.

Here are a few more awesome photos of it:

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When the details began emerging about Josh Hamilton’s relapse earlier this month, many people were outraged to learn that he was with Ian Kinsler the night he decided to drink. Those who jumped to conclusions wondered, “What type of friend and teammate is Kinsler?” As Hamilton explained during his statement after the relapse, he was extremely deceptive the night he had what he described as a “weak moment.” Over the weekend, Kinsler reiterated the fact that he was unaware Hamilton had been drinking.

“Josh is taking care of it,” Kinsler said according to the Star-Telegram. “He’s open and up-front about it. It’s not really my place to talk about it. I know I was there for part of the night. I’ve kind of gotten over it. I’m focused on the season. I support Josh. I’m completely supportive of him. I think all of his teammates are and all the coaches are. We’re going to be here for him and whatever he needs.

“I’m not too concerned about what people say. I was there. I know what happened. People can say what they think was happening or what they want to say about the situation. There were, seriously, eight people in that bar. I don’t know how many people were focused on us. We weren’t out in the middle of the bar.”

The shadiest part of the story for me was Hamilton’s assertion that he dropped Kinsler off and insisted he was going home. Assuming Kinsler is telling the truth about being unaware that Hamilton was drinking, wouldn’t he be concerned that his teammate — who happens to be a recovering alcoholic that suffered a relapse in 2009 — was just hanging out in a local bar with less than a dozen people? Kinsler may not have actually known Hamilton had a drink, but that would have raised a major red flag for me.

H/T Eye on Baseball

We’ve already addressed the awesomeness that is Cliff Lee for the Rangers. He pitched Game 1 and Game 5 of the ALDS and beat the Rays both times, allowing only two runs over 16 innings. What also should be addressed is that Ian Kinsler hit three home runs in the series, including a big two-run bomb off Rafael Soriano in the 9th to give Lee a much bigger margin for error. Kinsler went 8-for-18 with five runs scored and six RBIs in the five-game series. He hit three long balls and would have had a strong case for ALDS MVP if they gave out such an award.

What also must be added is the way the Rangers beat the Rays in Game 5. As LBS contributor Alan Hull and I discussed, baserunning was a deciding factor in the game. Shortstop Elvis Andrus scored the first run of the game going from second to home on a simple ground ball to first, all because Carlos Pena and David Price took their sweet time on the putout. Andrus should have been held at third, and he wouldn’t have scored after Vladimir Guerrero flied out to end the inning. That’s one run given away by the Rays, but they weren’t done, and credit must be given to Andrus for the aggressive running.

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