ARLINGTON, Texas — After falling behind 5-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth, the Texas Rangers were looking for anything to get them going. After all, the Rangers had not even had a hit, let alone scored a run.
Texas, however, quickly erased those zeroes, using a hit from Nathaniel Lowe to break the ice and a two-run homer from Josh Jung to get on the scoreboard and cut into Houston's lead.
With momentum riding with the Rangers, however, Yordan Alvarez strolled to the plate in the top of the sixth and was determined to keep his homer-happy postseason going.
Alvarez sent a 2-0 pitch from Texas reliever Cody Bradford to the deepest part of Globe Life Field, and it appeared he had once again inflicted pain on Rangers fans. Leody Taveras, however, had other ideas, reaching over the fence to rob the Houston slugger.
As good as a catch as it was, advanced statistics showed Taveras had truly made a miracle happen with his leaping grab.
Advanced stats show just how big that Leody Taveras catch was in ALCS Game 3
According to statistics, there was no way that ball could have been anything but a home run. But, much like the bumblebee's ability to fly, some things simply can't be explained with physics and statistics.
With the Rangers leading the ALCS 2-0 over the arch-rival and defending World Champion Astros, Texas manager Bruce Bochy had praised his team's defense earlier in the day, and those words proved prophetic with the Taveras catch.
"Taveras is getting better and better in all aspects of his game," Bochy said on Wednesday afternoon when talking about his team's improved defense in 2023. "I'm proud of how hard they (as a team) have worked in defense."
While the Rangers may be getting enough offense to win the first two games of the series, don't overlook the role defense played at a pivotal moment on Wednesday night.
