Cleveland Guardians rookie Cooper Ingle committed a costly blunder that handed the Texas Rangers the game-winning run during Tuesday night's game at Progressive Field.
Ingle was called up from Triple-A Columbus last week and made his Guardians debut this past Friday. After playing over 200 games in the minors as a catcher, the Guardians have moved him to left field in order to get his bat into the lineup.
Fast forward to the top of the seventh inning in Tuesday night's game with the game tied at 2-2. The Rangers had a runner on second with one out. Rangers batter Alejandro Osuna hit an easy fly ball to Ingle in left field for the second out of the inning. However, instead of throwing the ball back to the infield, he began jogging towards the dugout and tossed the ball into the stands, apparently thinking that it was the third out and the inning was over.
Ingle realized his mistake soon after, but there was nothing he could do. The goof allowed Rangers runner Ezequiel Duran to score from second base, giving Texas a 3-2 lead.
The Rangers are gifted a run after Cooper Ingle forgot how many outs there were and threw the ball in the stands. pic.twitter.com/lZCqIQ6jvk
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) July 1, 2026
Of course, Ingle was charged with an error, and he would bet he will probably never make that mistake again. To be fair, we have seen plenty of MLB players lose track of outs in recent years. At least Ingle can chalk it up to being a rookie.
Unfortunately, Ingle's teammates were unable to bail him out as the Guardians were unable to score any runs for the rest of the game, meaning Ingle's error effectively handed the game-winning run to the Rangers in the 4-2 loss. The Rangers have now won six straight games and have a half-game lead over Seattle in the American League West.
Moonlighting as a blogger to pursue my interest and enjoyment of sports. Former high school and Division I athlete (now a "retired" family man) that loves watching and discussing all sports. Follow me on Twitter (@HoldoutSports).
