Rangers on brink of 1st title after Game 4 rout of Diamondbacks – Daily News

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Rangers on brink of 1st title after Game 4 rout of Diamondbacks – Daily News

By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer

PHOENIX — Adolis García gathered the Texas Rangers’ hitters in a clubhouse side room on Tuesday afternoon and told them his World Series was over.

Max Scherzer was finished, too, injuries costing the American League champions their top slugger and potential Game 7 starting pitcher.

“Pull together guys. Let’s finish it!” outfielder Travis Jankowski recalled García saying.

Rangers batters not only bonded, they whipped through the Arizona Diamondbacks like a desert storm.

Marcus Semien’s two-run triple and three-run homer powered Texas to a 10-run lead by the third inning, Corey Seager hit another long home run and the Rangers won, 11-7, to move ahead three games to one in the World Series.

“That took a lot of guts for him to come out there and speak,” Seager said of García. “He was vulnerable. He wants to be out there. He told us he loved us.”

Texas improved to a record 10-0 on the road this postseason and closed within one win of the first title in the 63-season history of a franchise that started as the expansion Washington Senators in 1961.

Nathan Eovaldi tries to clinch the third all-wild card Series on Wednesday night against Zac Gallen in a rematch of Game 1 starters.

“We’ve got our top guy on the mound now,” Semien said. “He’s a guy who’s been waiting for this moment the entire year.”

Forty-two of 49 previous teams to take 3-1 leads have gone on to win the World Series. The most recent club to overcome a 3-1 deficit was the Chicago Cubs against Cleveland in 2016.

Rangers batters built a 10-0 cushion by becoming the first team in Series history with consecutive five-run innings. Seager’s third two-run homer of the Series capped the second, Semien’s drive punctuated the third and Jonah Heim added an eighth-inning shot.

Texas scored its first 10 runs with two outs, battering an Arizona staff that needed four pitchers to get its first eight outs. Miguel Castro’s wild pitch brought home the first run, and an error by Gold Glove first baseman Christian Walker – the first by either team in the Series – led to five unearned runs in the third.

“This was nothing that we saw coming,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “It all came unraveled on us there in a matter of two innings.”

Seager and Semien, All-Star middle infielders signed as free agents for $500 million combined before the 2022 season, have six RBIs each in the Series. Seager, the first shortstop with three Series homers, has four long balls in his last five games dating to the AL Championship Series. After leading the Dodgers to the 2020 title, he could join Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson as the only two-time World Series MVPs.

Jankowski, replacing García in right field, singled in the second and hit a two-run double in the third in his first Series at-bats.

“I was locked in last night waiting, preparing to start. I didn’t get the official news until 2 o’clock today,” Jankowski said. “Shoot, I’ve been ready to go 15 years ago.”

Former Angel and Dodger Andrew Heaney, a 32-year-old lefty with his fifth big league team, earned the win by allowing four hits in five innings. Six relievers followed, with closer José Leclerc getting the final out.

“We had a 10-run lead. It’s a lot easier to go out there, attack the strike zone and not feel so confined to having to make perfect pitches,” Heaney said.

There was a festive mood at Chase Field, where the roof was open for the second straight night and some fans arrived in Halloween costumes.

Josh Jung doubled off opener Joe Mantiply leading off the second and in came Castro, who gave up García’s winning homer in the 11th inning of Game 1. Jung advanced on a groundout and put Texas ahead when Castro bounced a changeup off the plate for a wild pitch.

Semien hooked a slider that landed about 18 inches fair and bounced into the left-field corner for a two-run triple and a 3-0 lead.

“Looking for the outside corner. It didn’t do what I wanted to do. It just kind of stayed in the zone there,” Castro said through a translator.

Seager hit Kyle Nelson’s slider 431 feet off a video board above the right-center wall for his sixth postseason homer.

“Made a mistake to the wrong hitter,” Nelson said. “The plan was to carefully pitch around him.”

In the first World Series to open with three errorless games, Arizona’s defense cracked at an inopportune time. After singles by Jung and Nathaniel Lowe with one out in the third, Luis Frías relieved and Heim hit a sharp grounder to Walker, who had a chance for a double play but dropped the ball on the transfer as he looked to throw to second.

Jankowski doubled and Semien sent a fastball at the letters over the left-field wall for his first homer since Sept. 27.

“I hadn’t jogged around the bases in a while,” Semien said.

Heim had been 0 for 12 before his homer against Ryne Nelson.

LATE SURGE

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth for Arizona and a three-run homer in the eighth against Chris Stratton. Tommy Pham had a sacrifice fly in the eighth, and Gabriel Moreno delivered a two-run single in the ninth.

GARCIA, SCHERZER OUT FOR SERIES

Garcia and Scherzer will miss the rest of the World Series after getting hurt in Game 3.

García has a moderate strain of his left oblique. Scherzer, who had been in line to pitch a possible Game 7, has a muscle spasm on the right side of his back.

They were replaced on the active roster by infielder/outfielder Ezequiel Durán and left-hander Brock Burke before Game 4 on Tuesday night.

“They’ve worked their entire lives to be on this stage and be in this moment and they’ve both suffered injuries that are going to take them out of that,” Rangers general manager Chris Young said. “I have great empathy for them in terms of that.”

García grabbed his left side while coming out of the batter’s box on his flyout against Luis Frías in the eighth inning Monday.

“Adolis did everything he could today,” Young said. “He came in, was the first guy in today. He got as much treatment as possible. He went down to the cage and gave it a go, and it was very clear he was in pain. It’s not something that’s going to get any better over the next five to seven days. I think it would be a more significant timeline if this were the regular season. Made the decision pretty easy.”

García hit .323 in the postseason with eight homers and a major league-record 22 RBIs, one more than David Freese had for the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals. García was 3 for 10 in the World Series with two RBIs, including an 11th-inning home run off Miguel Castro that gave Texas a 6-5 win in Friday’s opener. He also threw out Christian Walker at the plate from right field in Game 3.

The two-time All-Star batted .357 with five homers and 15 RBIs in the ALCS against Houston, a major league record for RBIs in one postseason series. He homered in five straight games, tied for the second-longest streak in postseason history, before going 0 for 3 with a walk in Game 2 of the World Series.

Jankowski, replacing García in the outfield, hit .263 with one homer and 30 RBIs in his first season with the Rangers.

“Travis has had a really nice year for us in his role,” Bochy said. “Got pressed into a starting role there for a while when we had our injuries and really picked us up when we needed it. Solid all around. Smart player. Good defender. Speed. He’s a guy that can handle the bat. He can bunt. He does a good job putting the ball in play.”

Mitch Garver moved from fifth to third in the order, where García had been. Josh Jung moved from eighth to fifth, and Nathaniel Lowe moved from seventh to sixth, flipping with Jung. Leody Taveras moved up to eighth.

Durán last played on Sept. 29 and Burke faced three batters in Game 2 of the Division Series on Oct. 8.

Scherzer left Game 3 after three innings. Asked after the game whether he was taking a muscle relaxant or something stronger, Scherzer responded: “All of the above.”

“He received a full day of treatment and there was no progress,” Young said. “Our medical team has extreme concern in terms of his ability to recover over the next few days.”

Acquired from the New York Mets on July 30, Scherzer strained a muscle in his right shoulder on Sept. 12 and returned to make two starts in the AL Championship Series against Houston, going 0-1 with a 9.45 ERA. He allowed five runs over four innings and took the loss in Game 3, then gave up two runs in 2⅔ innings in a no-decision in Game 7.

He was pitching Monday with a cut on his right thumb covered with cotton and Super Glue, what he termed Sunday as “a little arts and crafts in the training room.”

Scherzer is 1-0 with a 3.72 ERA in four World Series starts, getting a no-decision for Detroit against San Francisco in 2012’s Game 4, winning the 2019 opener for Washington at Houston and getting a no-decision in the Game 7 win that year after getting scratched from a scheduled Game 5 start because of an irritated nerve near his neck.

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