Rangers crush Diamondbacks in Game 4, now one win from first World Series title

PHOENIX – It counts as just a single win, though it pushes the Texas Rangers within one more of their first World Series championship. They could have won by 100 runs and the Rangers would still need another W to finish off these Arizona Diamondbacks.

Yet in Game 4 Tuesday night at Chase Field, the Rangers’ Diamondbacks demolition was so thorough, so damaging that it begs the question if there will be a psychic hangover for the 84-win underdogs as their season hangs in the balance.

The Rangers made World Series history with just about every vicious swing, posting consecutive five-run innings and cruising to an 11-7 victory before 48,388 mostly stunned onlookers.

They took a 3-1 lead in this World Series and Wednesday night, they can end this season and celebrate a championship on Arizona’s field, a fitting end for a club undefeated in 10 road games this postseason.

And should they prevail in Game 5 – ace Nathan Eovaldi will face his Arizona counterpart, Zac Gallen – there’s little doubt who might be taking home more hardware.

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Corey Seager became the first shortstop to hit three home runs in a World Series, his two-run shot off Diamondbacks reliever Kyle Nelson giving Texas a 5-0 second-inning lead. The blowout was sealed an inning later, when second baseman Marcus Semien crushed a three-run shot off Luis Frías, stretching the lead to 10-0.

Seager was MVP of the 2020 NLCS and World Series as a Los Angeles Dodger. And he’d almost surely add the 2023 Series MVP to his mantle with one more win, more than justifying the $325 million contract the Rangers gave him in November 2021, when they signaled serious intent to contend.

Tuesday, all those plans coalesced.

Semien, the $175 million running mate for Seager, tripled, homered and drove in five runs. Starter Andrew Heaney, signed before this year, gave up just one run over five innings, likely exceeding manager Bruce Bochy’s expectations and giving him a loaded bullpen for a potential closeout Game 5.

Oh, and speaking of bullpens: The Diamondbacks’ failed miserably.

Left one starter short on his depth chart throughout the playoffs, manager Torey Lovullo opted for the all-hands approach, and after two innings, Joe Mantiply, Miguel Castro, Luis Frías and Ryne Nelson had coughed up 10 runs, half of those greatly abetted by first baseman Christian Walker booting a potential double-play grounder in the third inning.

The only saving graces? Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s three-run home run helped make the final score semi-respectable and Arizona's fifth pitcher, Ryne Nelson, plowed through 5 ⅓ innings of three-hit ball, ensuring most of Arizona’s high-leverage relievers didn’t have to participate in this debacle. 

They’ll be needed tomorrow, to stem this Rangers rampage that might not stop until a title is in hand. 

Here's how Game 4 unfolded on Tuesday:

Rangers up 10-1 through seven

Handed a 10-0 lead, Rangers starter Andrew Heaney did his job by tossing five innings, giving up just one earned run on four hits.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth to get the Diamondbacks on the board. Dane Dunning tossed a scoreless sixth for Texas, followed by Cody Bradford in the eighth.

Rangers blow it open, lead Diamondbacks 10-0 through three

PHOENIX – A relatively must-win game for the Arizona Diamondbacks has turned into a bludgeoning.

The Texas Rangers are making a mockery of the Diamondbacks’ bullpen game and bashing their way to the verge of a World Series championship, pummeling four Arizona pitchers to take a 10-0 lead in the third inning of Game 4 at Chase Field on Tuesday.

Texas made World Series history, producing consecutive five-run innings five-run innings, the latter in large part due to first baseman Christian Walker booting a likely inning-ending double-play ball off the bat of Jonah Heim. At the least, it would have ensured the inning finished without incident one batter later.

Instead, emergency right fielder Travis Jankowski produced his second run-scoring hit in as many innings, a two-run double, and Marcus Semien smashed a three-run homer, both off right-hander Luis Frias, to make it a 10-0 game.

Semien has a triple, home run and five RBI in his three at-bats. Meanwhile, starter Andrew Heaney – not ticketed for long in this game – has tossed three shutout innings, giving up just three hits. Should Heaney pitch into the fifth inning, it will only deepen Texas’ pitching advantage for Game 5 on Wednesday.

– Gabe Lacques

Most runs in World Series game: Yankees hold record

The New York Yankees scored 18 runs in Game 2 of the 1936 World Series against the New York Giants, the most in a single World Series game.

The most total runs in a World Series game was 29 in the Toronto Blue Jays' 15-14 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the 1993 World Series.

Corey Seager homers in Rangers' five-run second inning

PHOENIX – As Torey Lovullo readied his Arizona Diamondbacks for an all-hands bullpen effort in Game 4 of the World Series, he mused that his relievers were “gassed up and ready to go” and that the “chess game” within was going to be a lot of fun.

In less than two innings, the Texas Rangers seemed to yell, “Checkmate!”

The Rangers erupted for five runs off three Arizona pitchers, the final blow yet another home run from Corey Seager, and they held a 5-0 lead after two innings, poised to take a 3-1 lead in this World Series.

Seager destroyed a 1-0 slider from lefty Kyle Nelson – brought in just for that moment – and sent it 431 feet off a back well behind the fence in right center field. It capped an inning that began with rookie Josh Jung greeted starter-but-also-reliever Joe Mantiply with a double to the gap in right center, eventually scoring on Travis Jankowski’s RBI single off the second pitcher, Miguel Castro, in Jankowski’s first World Series at-bat.

Jankowski was playing only because postseason hero Adolis García is out for the season with an oblique injury. His absence might have given the Diamondbacks a bit of hope, but it doesn’t help when the No. 9 hitter replacing him drives in the game’s first run.

And then: Marcus Semien two-run triple, prompting Nelson’s arrival. Seager quickly countered with his third home run of this Series. 

– Gabe Lacques

Adolis Garcia, Max Scherzer off Rangers' World Series roster with injury

PHOENIX — The Texas Rangers, ravaged by injuries all season, will now be without their record-setting cleanup hitter for the rest of the World Series, along with their three-time Cy Young winner. 

Rangers All-Star right fielder Adolis Garcia, who has eight home runs and a record 22 RBI this postseason, was diagnosed with a strained oblique Tuesday while Max Scherzer was dealing with back tightness – and both were removed from the World Series roster ahead of Game 4.

The roster moves were announced an hour before the first pitch with the Rangers leading the World Series 2-1. Garcia is being replaced by utilityman Ezequiel Duran and Scherzer's place will be taken by left-hander Brock Burke.

“They've worked their entire lives to be on this stage and be in this moment," Rangers GM Chris Young said. “And they've both suffered injuries that are going to take them out of that. I have great empathy for them in terms of that. But they're team players, and they've got positive attitudes. And the rest of the group is the same way.

“But I hurt for those guys personally because I know how much they mean to our club, how hard they've worked to be in this situation. And then now it's gone for them.’’

– Bob Nightengale

Rangers, Diamondbacks starting lineups and pitchers for World Series Game 4

Texas Rangers

LHP Andrew Heaney

1. Marcus Semien (R) 2B
2. Corey Seager (L) SS
3. Mitch Garver (R) DH
4. Evan Carter (L) LF
5. Josh Jung (R) 3B
6. Nathaniel Lowe (L) 1B
7. Jonah Heim (S) C
8. Leody Taveras (S) CF
9. Travis Jankowski (L) RF

Arizona Diamondbacks

LHP Joe Mantiply

1. Ketel Marte (S) 2B
2. Corbin Carroll (L) RF
3. Gabriel Moreno (R) C
4. Christian Walker (R) 1B
5. Tommy Pham (R) DH
6. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (R) LF
7. Alek Thomas (L) CF
8. Emmanuel Rivera (R) 3B
9. Geraldo Perdomo (S) SS

Simulated World Series Game 4: D-backs get last blast to win slugfest

Here's how tonight's game will play out, according to USA TODAY Sports' annual Sim Series played using Dynasty League Baseball:

In what most closely resembled the 2011 All-Star Home Run Derby, the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Texas Rangers 9-7 in Game 4 of USA TODAY Sports' annual Simulated World Series.

The two teams combined for 10 homers, five by each team, but Evan Longoria's two-run blast in the bottom of the seventh inning was the difference as Arizona relievers Kevin Ginkel and Paul Sewald slammed the door on any potential rally by the Rangers.

Corey Seager set the tone for the evening in the top of the first inning with a mammoth blast into the swimming pool in right field. But the Rangers came right back as Longoria and Ketel Marte homered off Texas starter Andrew Heaney in the second. Marte added another solo shot in the fourth off Jon Gray as the D-backs built a 7-3 lead.

Texas rallied to tie the game on a three-run homer from Mitch Garver and a game-tying missile from Nathaniel Lowe before Longoria's 386-foot shot to left carried Arizona to victory. Ginkel tossed two scoreless innings to get the win and Sewald pitched the ninth to nail down the save.

What to watch in (the real) Game 4:

– Bullpen management: In what was supposed to only be a bullpen game for the Diamondbacks, the two teams ended up using a total of 11 pitchers, severely depleting their bullpens for Wednesday's Game 5. With a stretch of three games in three days that isn't seen in the early rounds of the playoffs, the relievers both managers hold back may be as or more important than the ones they decide to use in Game 4.

– Slugfest looming: The simulated weather conditions didn't really impact the barrage of home runs as much as it might seem. The fact that pitchers such as Heaney, Gray and Arizona's Ryne Nelson had such high home run rates during the regular season was more the culprit. As both teams go deep into their bullpens, the chances of a high-scoring game increase considerably.

Torey Lovullo 'steaming mad' over umpire calls in Game 3 loss

PHOENIX — For the most part, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo spent his press conference before Tuesday’s Game 4 of the World Series looking forward, not back at the Diamondbacks’ 3-1 loss in Game 3. But when asked about the umpiring in that defeat, Lovullo struggled to hold back.

“I looked at it all,” Lovullo said. “I was up at 3:30 this morning steaming mad. So I'll leave it right there.”

Immediately after the game, Lovullo said, “If they were off the plate and there were missed calls, they've got to tighten it up.” He did, though, follow that criticism with sympathy for the umpires.

“The umps are doing their absolute best,” Lovullo said. “Ball is moving at a high velocity. It's getting manipulated at home plate. But there were some calls that didn't go our way today. Was that the difference in the game? I don't know. I don't think so.”

– Theo Mackie, AZCentral.com