CLEVELAND — Cooper Ingle camped under a lazy fly ball, squeezed it in his glove and flipped the baseball into his barehand. The rest of the seventh-inning sequence might as well have unfolded in cartoonish slow motion, with Ingle’s coaches and teammates and every Guardians fan in attendance shouting, “Nooo.”As Ingle started to jog toward the home dugout, he casually tossed the baseball into the crowd. One problem: His catch was the second out, not the third. Texas’ Ezequiel Duran, who was harmlessly wandering off second base, was awarded home plate as a result.Ingle gift-wrapped the Rangers a 3-2 lead and when he finally realized his gaffe, he stood in disbelief, looking like he wanted to escape to anywhere else on the planet or to turn back time or to switch places with any of the fans whose greatest stressor was whether there was enough time to squeeze in one last beer run.The Rangers hung on for a 4-2 win, and Ingle, appearing in his fourth big-league game, received a harsh, early-career lesson.
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) July 1, 2026When he returned to the dugout, manager Stephen Vogt left his post to tell the rookie, “Flush it. Go get a hit for us.”
“I’m sure Coop is going to beat himself up about it,” Vogt said, “but those things happen. We learn from it. We flush it. And we move on.”Ingle apologized to pitcher Tanner Bibee, who was saddled with the loss after allowing the decisive, unearned run. Bibee, who retired the next batter, brushed it off and told him to “go tie the game.”It was another stroke of poor fortune for Bibee (2-9, 3.69 ERA), who has received the second-worst run support in the league.“Obviously, I feel terrible,” Ingle said. “It’s a pretty embarrassing feeling. But having a group of guys who are behind you the whole time definitely helps.”Ingle, a fourth-round draft pick in 2023 out of Clemson, is a catcher by trade. Last season, in Keith Law’s updated Top 60 prospects for The Athletic, he was listed as an honorable mention. Before this season, Ingle cracked Top 100 prospects lists at MLB Pipeline and Baseball Prospectus.Since catcher is blocked at the big-league level by Austin Hedges and Patrick Bailey, the Guardians added left field to his repertoire in recent weeks. The Guardians promoted him to the majors last week after he flourished at the plate for a few months at Triple-A Columbus.He started seven games in left field for Columbus, his first outfield action since college. Tuesday, he was making his second start in left field since his promotion to Cleveland.Ingle’s locker resides on the back wall of the Guardians’ home clubhouse, in an area occupied by catchers. Hedges, Bailey and David Fry all have nearby lockers, and the four sat together after the game Tuesday. Ingle did a lot of listening and nodding.“I’ve made so many mistakes, I can’t even remember half of them,” Hedges said. “I’ve embarrassed myself a billion times on the field. I mean, just check my offensive numbers for my career.”Beyond the gaffe, Ingle went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, including one to end the game.“Learn from it, think about it,” Ingle said. “It’s not something that makes you feel great but things like that happen for a reason and learning from those things and moving on and getting better from them is pretty much the only thing you can do.”
