The Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers played a meaningless game on Thursday afternoon, as both teams have long since been eliminated from playoff contention. Yet that didn't prevent some unusual circumstances giving way to unexpected postgame bickering. Oddly enough, it stemmed from a player helping his teammate achieve a personal statistical feat.

What exactly happened in Texas? Let's break it down.

Rangers starter Mike Minor entered the game with 191 strikeouts on the season. This being his final start, it seems that manager Chris Woodward wanted to provide him with ample opportunity to notch a 200-strikeout season.

In theory, that's a nice, player-friendly approach. In practice, it meant Woodward allowed Minor to throw 126 pitches over 8 2/3 innings. Keep in mind, Minor had previously not thrown more than 117 pitches in a start this season, and had topped the 110-mark just once since the beginning of September.

This only matters so far as it explains the acts of Texas' first baseman, Ronald Guzman, who in the ninth inning elected to let a Chris Owings pop-up fall foul. Take a look at the play in question:

Guzman's decision set up Minor with a 1-2 count on Owings. Predictably, Minor struck out Owings for his 200th punch out on the year:

Woodward then popped out of the dugout and replaced Minor with Jose LeClerc, who secured the Rangers' victory and an easy save.

Following the game, Cora took issue with the un-played pop-up, saying the Rangers were not playing the game "the right way."

Woodward, meanwhile, raised suspicion about the Red Sox's seventh inning, in which Boston made three outs on three pitches. Minor also noted that the gave Guzman a "code red" to let the ball drop.

There are going to be a lot of arguments about whether the Rangers disobeyed the spirit of the game, or if the Red Sox are being too sensitive toward a sort-of nice gesture by Guzman that harms absolutely no one, or whatever. Reader, we encourage you to do almost anything else with your time instead of engaging in such debate, for no one wins in these conversations -- they merely survive; and even then, they're lesser. And at what cost? None worth paying, in our estimation.