A Texas Rangers farmhand completely befuddled a Houston Astros prospect with a perfectly executed hidden ball trick on Thursday ... and the epic play was all captured on video!
The trickery happened in the third inning of the Corpus Christi Hooks game against the Frisco RoughRiders -- after 'Stros prospect Justin Dirden knocked a base hit into right field.
As Dirden was celebrating the feat with his first base coach, Trey Hair devised a plan. The Rangers prospect hid the ball in the back of his glove and slowly made his way to Dirden.
🚨HIDDEN BALL TRICK 🚨 pic.twitter.com/87z3MCy8rI
— Frisco RoughRiders (@RidersBaseball) May 20, 2022
In footage of the play, you can see Hair made a swipe at the bag, which caused Dirden to leave it -- and then he casually tagged the runner out.
Dirden was left perplexed, and questioned the umpire about the call. But, it turns out the ump said everything was legal -- and Dirden was ruled out!
Awesome play -- but Dirden ended up getting the last laugh ... the 24-year-old went 3-for-3 with a home run and 4 RBIs, and the Hooks ended up winning 9-5.