ARLINGTON — Angels manager Joe Maddon has long been known for being unconventional during his 19-year career as a major league manager.
But he went to the extreme on Friday, choosing to purposely lead Texas hitter Corey Seager with the loaded bases and an out in the fourth inning to bring a run home after Rangers was already ahead.
Maddon challenged right-hander Austin Warren to intentionally walk left-handed batting Seager to get to right-handed sluggers Mitch Garver and Adolis García. The Rangers then went on three runs, but the Angels eventually came back with a 9-6 win.
“I figured if I walked Seager, I’d avoid the big hit,” Maddon said. “And honestly just to stir up the group. It’s not something you normally do. I thought if I went up there and did something like that, the team could react to something like that.”
Seager was confused by the decision, as was Angels superstar Mike Trout as TV cameras swung to him in midfield. Warren also said he was surprised by the decision but he trusts his manager.
“Absolutely, it surprised me, but I’m not going to say no to Joe Maddon,” Warren said. “I trust Maddon a lot and it worked out.”
Seager entered the night as a career .305/.380/.520 hitter against right-handers, which influenced Maddon’s decision. But Warren had actually held lefties to a career .461 OPS compared to .614 OPS against righties. Garver doesn’t have huge splits either – he’s had a career .821 OPS vs righties and 0.863 OPS vs lefties – while García has had career reverse splits with 0.756 OPS vs righties and 0.662 OPS vs lefties.
The move backfired when Garver hit a deep drive into right midfield for a sacrificial fly, while Warren failed at the plate with García to bring another run home. It capped a five-run inning that gave Texas the lead.
“I saw the best batsman in the game get done at Barry Bonds,” said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. “It’s obviously a compliment to Seager for how good he is. Who knows, maybe it’s a Grand Slam or maybe a doubles match? But that wasn’t why they won. That’s why they didn’t come out. And that’s why we ended up scoring a couple of runs.”
It was only the third time since 1950 that a hitter had been intentionally run with loaded bases: Josh Hamilton also got a free pass with juiced bases in 2008, as did Barry Bonds in 1998. It was also the eighth time on record it’s happened. The others who did it to them were Bill Nicholson in 1944, Mel Ott in 1929, Del Bissonette in 1928, Nap Lajoie in 1901, and Abner Dalrymple in 1881.
Maddon was the opposing manager when he chose to deliberately run Hamilton with bases loaded on August 17, 2008. But it was a very different situation, with the then Maddon-managed Rays leading the Rangers by four runs and two outs in ninth when Hamilton was issued the free pass. Tampa Bay won with Marlon Byrd stopping the game.
Bonds was also intentionally walked in the ninth inning of an 8-7 loss to the D-Backs on May 28, 1998. That walk also came with two outs in the ninth before Brent Mayne made his way to right field to end the game.
Maddon earned a reprieve, however, when the Angels came back in the fifth inning with five runs of their own, made by a solo homer by Kurt Suzuki and a two-run shot by Shohei Ohtani for his second homer of the game. Jared Walsh leveled the game with an RBI single and scored the go-ahead for a sacrifice fly from Brandon Marsh. Walsh gave the Halos two more insurance runs with a two-run blast in the seventh.
“Whatever it did, it sparked us,” Warren said. “Because we put in five runs in the next inning. So everything worked out.”
The Rangers, on the other hand, would not score after their fourth inning with five runs. Woodward stressed that the lack of execution on the pitching side was the reason for the loss, not the intentional walk.
“I think everyone was [surprised]’ Woodward said. “I don’t think anybody expected it, you know, [up] 3:2 back then. I don’t really have any comment on that. I was actually happy because Mitch Garver can strike now. I mean he just missed a Grand Slam. I mean, you could look at it in hindsight and say it worked. It did not work. We didn’t execute afterwards. We took a 6-2 lead. We should win.”