Rougned Odor's trip around the bases included zero hits and a straight steal of home

When a player gets on base and comes around to score, it’s safe to assume that there was a hit involved somewhere. Maybe there’s a walk or a stolen base mixed in, but with four whole bases for a player to traverse, a hit is usually part of the journey.

But Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor didn’t need any hits to score against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night. Not a single one. In the bottom of the seventh inning he made it all the way around the bases and slid right into home without one.

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The whole thing started with Odor drawing a walk, which is news on its own. Odor isn’t known for his patience at the plate: in 485 plate appearances this season, he’s walked just 18 times while striking out 112 times. And if you weren’t sure that the walk was a big deal, the announcer helped out by expressing complete surprise and saying “Well what do you know, Rougned Odor draws a walk!”

Odor had made it to first, and there were no outs — the perfect time to be aggressive. With Robinson Chirinos batting, Odor took off for second base. He slid in, and the force of the slide turned him over on his back like a turtle. He didn’t stay like that long, because while he came to a stop at second, the ball just kept going. Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler couldn’t grasp the ball cleanly with his glove and it skipped away into center field. Odor saw an opportunity, so he jumped up and ran to third.

Odor hung out at third base for the next two outs and through a Tigers pitching change. Daniel Stumpf came in to replace Joe Jimenez and get the final out. Shin-Soo Choo was batting, and on Stumpf’s 2-2 pitch, Odor saw another opportunity. He broke for home before Stumpf had even started his pitching motion.

To say that no one was ready for Odor to try to steal home would be an understatement. Stumpf was preparing to throw a pitch and didn’t realize what was happening until Odor was 2/3 of the way to home plate. Tigers catcher John Hicks did the best he could once he saw Odor barreling toward him from third base, but the throw was too late to give Hicks any time to set up for a tag. Odor slid in and tagged with ease while Hicks fell backward and dropped the ball.

Even if Hicks had held on to the ball, it wouldn’t have mattered. Home plate umpire John Tumpane called a balk on Stumpf immediately after Odor slid in, which meant that Odor would have scored no matter what.

So let’s recap: Odor walked, stole second, made it to third on an error, successfully stole home, but had that erased on a balk which meant he scored anyway. There are a lot of ways to manufacture a run, but that just might be a new one.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher