Oscar Taveras, Rising MLB Star, Dies in Car Crash at Age 22

Oscar Taveras, Rising MLB Star, Dies in Car Crash at Age 22, Had his St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants in the National League Championship Series, instead of lost four games to one, 22-year-old Oscar Taveras could have been playing in the World Series this weekend. The outfielder was young, and didn't have much experience, but was a major talent of whom eventual greatness was expected, if not assumed.

But the Cardinals didn't win that round, and the Giants are in the World Series, and so Taveras had returned home to his native Dominican Republic. He died there in an auto accident that also killed his girlfriend on Saturday afternoon, according to multiple reports. But — in a surreal and tragic twist — the news didn't break until Sunday night, just as the Giants and Kansas City Royals had begun to play Game 5 of the World Series that Taveras himself so easily could have been in.

Taveras made his MLB debut for the Cardinals this season, and was a part-time outfielder. He entered the now-concluding season ranked as one of baseball's top-three prospects, according to NBC Sports, and was expected to compete for a starting job next year.

Two weeks ago Sunday, on Oct. 12, Taveras flashed his tantalizing potential in Game 2 of the Cardinals' series against the Giants. Inserted as a pinch-hitter into the game, he ripped a seventh-inning solo home run off Giants reliever Jean Machi as the Cardinals beat the San Francisco 5-4 for their only victory of the series.

"All of us throughout Major League Baseball are in mourning this evening, shocked by the heartbreaking news," MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement released by the league. "We play Game 5 of the 2014 World Series in the memory of these two young people."

As news of Taveras' death slowly moved along press row at AT&T Park here during the early innings of Game 5 on Sunday evening, writers and reporters spoke softly to one another and tweeted condolences and links to breaking news posts. It was a strange and sad dichotomy.

On the field below, baseball's crown jewel and one of the most romantic events in all of sports. In the world outside AT&T Park, one of the more shocking and tragic baseball deaths in recent memory. In the stands, thousands of fans, many of which likely had no idea of Taveras' passing. Fox Sports TV reporter Erin Andrews reported that the Giants' Juan Perez, who's also from the Dominican Republic, was in tears in the San Francisco dugout.