Rangers fans are furious at Leody Taveras after game-changing misplay

Jacob deGrom is getting a bit of PTSD from his time with the New York Mets this season as he's still left wondering where the Texas Rangers' offense is during his starts.

On Thursday, Texas was able to get him three runs courtesy of three solo home runs by Josh Jung, Jonah Heim and Leody Taveras, all solo shots in the top of the fourth off J.T. Ginn. In fact, it was the defense that ended up failing him last night.

It started in the bottom of the third inning with Wyatt Langofrd making an uncharacteristic mistake, losing a routine fly ball by Lawrence Butler in the sky. It seemed Langford had it measured but then he didn't and the ball dropped 15 feet over his head, putting two runners on.

Tyler Soderstrom then singled to give the A's an early 2-0 lead. Texas did answer that with the three solo home runs so it seemed all was okay. deGrom finished with 5 1/3 innings, six hits, two runs, no walks and six strikeouts and was potentially lined up to get his first win of the season.

To lead off the ninth inning, Luke Jackson got Miguel Andjuar to ground out but then walked Max Schuemann. Luis Urias followed with a single, which kicked off Leody Taveras's glove, allowing the tying run to score and put the winning run at second. Jacob Wilson followed with a walk-off single to give the A's the 4-3 win and take the series.

Have we seen enough of Leody Taveras manning the Rangers centerfield for the time being?

Over the last four seasons, Taveras has actually been an above-average fielder for the Rangers. Despite the errors, mental mistakes and lapses in judgement that become viral and over-magnified at times by the fanbase.

Even with that mind, we have been seeing a new level of lazy from Taveras this season. Plays like the one on Thursday aren't getting counted as errors but it very much is an error. At the minimum, it's somehting that plain and simple can't happen.

"No excuse," Taveras told reporters after the game. "That's a play I have to make to win the game. I just missed it. It could've been anything, but there's no excuses. That's a play I have to make. It's bad. It's a bad feeling. I cost us the win."

The first month of the season has been espeically tough for Taveras in the outfield, making several of those errors that have hurt the Rangers at important moments down the stretch of games this month.

Fans were beside themselves online, fed up with Taveras' lack of focus in the outfield in the first month of the season. One user writing, "LEODY TAVERAS SHOULD NOT BE IN A TEXAS RANGERS UNIFORM AGAIN. COSTING US WINS!!" Other fans shared their thoughts calling Taveras "lazy" and to "send him to the moon."

Langford's miscue and the Rangers offense shouldn't be left off the hook though

It wouldn't be fair to the full scope of the issue to leave Langford's miscue in the third inning off the hook. It also wouldn't be fair to diminish the lack of production on the offensive side.

Texas scored enough runs to put them in an opportunity to get their 15th win of the season. It's at minimum all you can ask for to enter the ninth inning three outs away from winning a ballgame. But outside of those three runs, the Rangers went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left the bases loaded twice on Thursday.

Langford's miscue is also something out of character for him but still not something we can let him off the hook for. Bochy acknowledges the freakiness of the situation but says it is still mistakes they can't afford.

"We had a bad break with that twlight ball," Bochy said. "Those are tough to lose like this. We've been playing really well defensively, I think. We did make a couple of mistake, but I think overall we've been playing well. It just got away from us."