It's hard to pin Tuesday night's Rangers loss solely on Josh Hamilton's boneheaded play in the field, because it's generally hard to do that when your inept offense collects just four hits off a really average starting pitcher.
But Hamilton's blunder in left-center field early in the fifth inning was a pretty big reason for the loss, and it was the sole reason Yovani Gallardo saw his scoreless inning streak end at 34 innings.
Early in the inning with one out in the books, Hamilton appeared to just totally misjudge a ball, as it glanced off the side of his glove. Somehow, the play was ruled a triple and not an error in the most egregious case of the complete opposite of home cooking ever by an official scorekeeper. That should've been the second out.
Yasmany Tomas struck out, which should've ended the inning, but didn't. The next batter, Jake Lamb, hit a broken-bat single to center field to score two runners and end Gallardo's streak and, more importantly, give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead that should've never been.
Of course, the final margin of victory was two runs.
Rangers fans are familiar with boneheaded Hamilton plays in the outfield, see that horrible display in Oakland in Game 162 of the 2012 season that cost the Rangers the division. It wasn't of that magnitude on Tuesday, but it was pretty big, especially given the Rangers' recent slump as their home losing streak was stretched to seven games with the loss.
