In the span of just a few minutes on Tuesday night, Houston Astros catcher Max Stassi experienced one of the most memorable moments and one of the most humiliating moments of his professional baseball career.
With Houston leading 2-1 over the Texas Rangers in the top of the fifth, Stassi singled to record his first ever MLB hit. He then reached second on a throwing error by Rangers pitcher Jason Frasor, but was tagged out when he lost track of the baseball and wandered off the bag.
Basically, the Rangers pulled the hidden ball trick on Stassi without even trying. Frasor’s throw had gone off the top of shortstop Elvis Andrus’ glove and was snagged by Ian Kinsler, who was backing up the play. Stassi thought Andrus had the ball in his glove, so he was in no rush to get back to the bag when Elvis began walking toward the pitcher’s mound. But Kinsler was the one with the ball, and he walked up behind Stassi and tagged him out.
Poor guy. This is the type of stuff that can only happen to the Astros, but you hate to see it happen to a rookie after recording his first hit. Although, it’s probably best to get boneheaded plays like that out of the way now. At least he didn’t cost his team a valuable game.
