ARLINGTON – This has become the Rangers’ lot in their billion-dollar stadium: They have become bystanders to history.
There has been a World Series trophy hoisted in Globe Life Field and a couple of clubhouses soaked in post-clinch celebrations (Cleveland won the AL Central in the park 10 days ago). There have been two no-hitters and nearly a third (on Monday night).
Now: A home run record. About whether it’s the home run record, we’ll leave that to you and your own moral compasses. Officially, though, when Aaron Judge lasered a hanging slider off Jesús Tinoco to start Game 2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader between the Yankees and beleaguered Rangers, he eclipsed Roger Maris for the AL single-season home run record. Maris hit 61 in 1961, 61 years ago to set the mark. So much for all that symmetry: Judge now has 62 in 2022.
“It’s a big relief,” Judge said afterwards. “Everybody can finally sit down in their seats and watch the ballgame. I felt bad for my teammates because every single at-bat, I’ve got teammates stacked up. They’re at the top of the step waiting for me to do this. If I didn’t do something, I felt like I was letting them down.”
Judge went on to graciously thank his teammates, fans and the Maris family. He did not thank the Rangers. Didn’t have to. They were gracious hosts, though they did win the second game, 3-2. It snapped a seven-game losing streak. The season ends Wednesday.
About the record: Never has so much been made about a league-specific record. For the record: There have been six other occasions in which a hitter has had more than 62 homers. All of them were in the National League. All of them occurred during the height of the Steroid Era, topped by Barry Bonds with 73 in 2001. Consider this reference your asterisk.
Nobody among the 38,832 fans at Globe Life Field Tuesday night – the largest paid attendance in the park’s history - was debating records. They had come to see Judge homer. They got what they wanted.
There had been 30,533 fans at the first game of the doubleheader, all of them cheering every at-bat, some of them booing out of disappointment when he singled in the eighth inning in his final at-bat in the Yankees 5-4 win. As a “split” doubleheader, the stadium was cleared out between games and a new crowd ushered in. This group didn’t have to wait long.
Tinoco, 27, had been named the starting pitcher for Game 2 because, well, the Rangers don’t have pitching, which has been a season-long issue. He had spent most of the season in the minors. He was called up on Sept. 1 and was only supposed to pitch an inning as the opener. He began the game with a fastball up and out of the zone, perhaps hoping to take advantage of the aggressiveness Judge showed in the first game when he put the first pitch in play during three of his at-bats.
After Judge took the first pitch, Tinoco got a slider over to even the count, then doubled up with another. Bad idea. Unless you want to be remembered for giving up historic homers. But the Rangers came into this series vowing to challenge Judge and for the first two games, they’d been successful. Judge crushed it. It left the bat at 100 mph. The crowd gasped, then roared.
“It’s part of the game,” Tinoco said through interpreter Raul Cardenas. “We knew it was going to happen and nobody wants to give it up, but it’s part of the game. I challenged him and he hit. That’s my job [to go after hitters]. All I can say is ‘congratulations’ to him.”
It landed 391 feet away in the All You Can Eat seats in left field (Section 31, Row 1, Seat 3, to be exact). Cory Youmans, wearing a Rangers cap and carrying a glove grabbed it. Youmans, whose Linkedin page identifies him as a vice president for Fisher Investments, was quickly whisked away by security to decide what to do with the ball, which reportedly could fetch as much as $2 million from collectors. He did, however, lose out on the right to unlimited nachos for the remainder of the game.
As the ball descended, another unidentified fan had hopped the fence in the first row, perhaps hoping to grab it landed between the outfield wall and seats. Creative thinking. Alas, he ended up being escorted out of the ballpark. And without nachos, either.
In the meantime, Judge rounded the bases as his teammates poured out. He was met at home by Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson, received a long cheer from the crowd and then went to huge each teammate and staffer in the Yankees dugout. In the bottom of the first, he took the field to chants of “MVP, MVP” and a copycat call of the “Aaron Judge” welcome he receives from the right field stands in Yankees Stadium. He received another loud cheer when Boone pulled him from the game an inning later after he took the field for the bottom of the second.
The people who had come had seen what they came to see.
Rarely in the three years since Globe Life Field has opened has that been the case for Rangers fans. On Wednesday, they will finish their sixth consecutive losing season. They are 63-75 in the new stadium.
It has been far more welcoming to others. The Dodgers won the pandemic-relocated World Series in 2020. In 2021, San Diego’s Joe Musgrove and the Yankees Corey Kluber, a month apart, each threw no-hitters against the Rangers. Earlier this month, Cleveland clinched the AL Central. In the opener of this series, New York’s Luis Severino held the Rangers hitless for seven innings.
The Rangers have mostly just been compliant accomplices, playing the part of rollover when history has come calling. They hope to change this. Really, they do. But, alas, that’s going to have to wait until next year. Again.
“I don’t want to say it’s disappointing that he hit it here,” said Nathaniel Lowe, who has played more games at Globe Life Field than any other player and was on the losing side when the Dodgers beat Tampa Bay in the World Series. “But I really want to be on the right side here.”
Until then, the Rangers are just witnesses.
Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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