No Adolis, no Max? No problem: How the Rangers responded to adversity with a dominant victory
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
PHOENIX — Travis Jankowski is a long-haired, kinda-Spicolli-looking font of wisdom, the sort of guy who understands the soul of a baseball team because he spends more time observing than participating. When he signed a one-year, $1.25 million contract this spring with the Rangers, he expected to do what he’d spent most of his nine-year career doing: bringing some speed, some plate discipline and some good vibes. He did not expect to help save their season.
The first time it happened was April 12, when the Rangers’ all-everything shortstop, Corey Seager, hit the injured list with a strained hamstring. Some shuffling opened up an outfield spot for Jankowski, who spent most of his time in Seager’s No. 2 hole in the lineup. In the five weeks before Seager returned, all the Rangers did was lead Major League Baseball in runs scored.
On Tuesday, about an hour before Game 4 of the World Series, the Rangers announced that Adolis Garcia and Max Scherzer — their hottest hitter and erstwhile ace — would miss the remainder of the series with injuries. Jankowski would replace Garcia — ALCS MVP, Game 1 walk-off-homer author — in right field and slot in at the bottom of their lineup.
“When you’ve been through this, it’s a little easier,” Jankowski said. “We could’ve folded. That’s not us. I think everyone knows that by now.”
That much is clear after Game 4. The Rangers did the folding, shellacking the Arizona Diamondbacks in the early innings and weathering a tepid late rally to secure an 11-7 victory and move themselves to within one game of a World Series title. As much as was made of the losses of Garcia and Scherzer before Game 4, it was easy to forget the Rangers learned about the frailty of the human body and the strength of the human mind long before they were on the verge of winning their first World Series in 63 years of existence.
The domino effect from Seager’s injury — and the season-ending elbow surgery for ace Jacob deGrom and the dings that kept catcher Jonah Heim and third baseman Josh Jung and even Garcia out for extended periods during the regular season — fully prepared Texas for this. What their bodies lacked in any particular moment they made up for with an attitude that never leaned into any woe-is-me rhetoric.
The Rangers prefer whoa-is-me. And on the night that Seager hit another momentous and monumental home run to continue his postseason mastery, a night in which his keystone partner, Marcus Semien, busted out of a slump with a two-run triple and three-run homer in back-to-back innings, Jankowski did what he showed himself capable of in April. In the second inning, he feathered a single up the middle to keep the inning going. He followed the next inning with a bases-loaded double that scored a pair of runs and extended Texas’ lead to 7-0 — one that would grow to 10-0 one Semien swing later.
The Rangers are on the verge of winning the World Series because of this unrelenting offense that, after staying relatively quiet in the first three games of the series, feasted on Arizona’s bullpen. In the second and third innings, the Rangers put up five runs with two outs. A five-run inning in the World Series is uncommon. Back-to-back five-run innings never had happened. Consecutive five-run innings, all with two outs, probably never will happen again.
Texas understood that in order to feast, it needed to stop offering at the Diamondbacks’ bad pitches and maraud the good ones. After chasing on nearly 27% of Arizona’s pitches in the first three games, the Rangers cut that to 19.1% in Game 4. And with the Diamondbacks throwing significantly more pitches in the strike zone, Texas’ offense — which led MLB with 26 innings of five or more runs during the regular season — found itself.
“They don’t get swing happy,” Rangers hitting coach Tim Hyers said. “They stick to a plan. That’s what gives you competitive at-bats one after the other. But I think it starts with a good plan, but it also starts with they just don’t expand that much whenever they get the ball rolling.”
This wasn’t a ball. It was a boulder. Because this is how this Rangers offense has operated not just since the beginning of the postseason but the beginning of the season. The Rangers swing with the impertinence of Bamm-Bamm Rubble and the patience of a preschool teacher, marrying these divergent concepts and riding them to the verge of history. Texas’ 881 runs led the American League, and navigating this lineup, even without Garcia, is rife with peril.
“Think about it,” said Nate Lowe, the Rangers’ first baseman, who broke down the Rangers’ lineup in very simple terms:
“We have two MVP types hitting 1-2.” (Seager and Semien.)
“We had a playoff MVP cleaning up.” (Garcia.)
“We have an MVP-ceiling kid who’s stepping in to hit third.” (Evan Carter, who was in Double-A for almost the entirety of the season.)
“We have a Silver Slugger hitting fifth.” (DH Mitch Garver)
“The starting All-Star third baseman hitting sixth.” (Jung, whose three hits in Game 4 led Texas.)
“Another Silver Slugger hitting seventh.” (Lowe pointed to himself.)
“And then the All-Star starter at catcher hitting eight.” (Jonah Heim, whose eighth-inning home run Tuesday added Texas’ 11th run.)
“And a very quality leadoff hitter for arguably 29 other teams hitting ninth for us.” (Leody Taveras, whose walk against Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald in Game 1 set up Seager’s epic game-tying ninth-inning home run.)
“So, yeah,” Lowe said, “when you spell it all out like that, it’s pretty easy to relieve pressure on one bat to know that there are eight others, and two or three other bench bats” — Jankowski, Robbie Grossman, Ezequiel Duran, Austin Hedges — “that are ready to come in.”
Which is why the Rangers offense, better than most, can weather the loss of a hitter even of Garcia’s quality. When they are not doing well, they’re still better than most, and when they are locked in, it is baseball in god mode. The Rangers got healthy before the postseason, and until Scherzer hobbled off the mound in Game 3 with a locked-up back and Garcia grabbed at his oblique in the eighth inning, they’d shown that the team that sprinted to the American League West lead — before those injuries hit, causing that lead to evaporate and almost costing them a postseason spot — still lived somewhere in that clubhouse.
Game 4 unleashed god mode again, and they clowned the Diamondbacks in the same way Arizona has those who dared to doubt them. Though the Diamondbacks walked here in glass slippers, only a fool would suggest they’re done. The Philadelphia Phillies made that mistake and are now watching the World Series on TV.
Besides, these are the Texas Rangers, among the most woebegone franchises in professional sports. They’ve either been bad or sad. The awfulness is pervasive. The melancholy is particularly acute, aged a dozen years, when they were one strike from winning the World Series.
This is a new team, though, a new era, with a new manager in Bruce Bochy, who has three rings, and a new franchise player in Seager, who’s got one, and a new appreciation for what all of the injuries taught them. And it doesn’t hurt to know that only six of 47 teams facing 3-1 World Series deficits have recovered to win.
The Rangers are not what they are — they are not here — without April and May giving them the opportunity to find out they can be just as good without even someone who feels integral to their success.
“That, to me, is kind of the motto of our team,” Jankowski said. “We got some boppers in the lineup, but we can’t rely on them all the time. It’s baseball. Crazy stuff happens. We need a team unit to win this whole thing. And that’s what I was in awe of.”
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
On the penultimate day of the regular season, the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates met on a cloudy afternoon at Yankee Stadium for a game of little consequence. The Yankees had already clinched the American League East title. The last-place Pirates were 24 hours from another long offseason.
But the game featured an intriguing matchup within the matchup: two starting pitchers with vastly different backgrounds and histories who happened to be leading contenders for the Rookie of the Year Award in their respective leagues to the mound opposite each other.
For the Pirates: Paul Skenes, the hyped generational talent 14 months removed from college. For the Yankees: Luis Gil, a 26-year-old revelation two-plus years removed from Tommy John surgery.
Nearly two months after that meeting, the two right-handers were recognized Monday as the best rookies in their leagues. Skenes was voted the National League’s Rookie of the Year, beating out a loaded field headlined by outfielders Jackson Merrill and Jackson Chourio after posting one of the best rookie seasons for a pitcher in major league history. Gil edged out teammate and catcher Austin Wells and Baltimore Orioles outfielder Colton Cowser to win the award in the American League in a tight race.
Skenes, who debuted less than a year after being selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, surpassed expectations in his first taste of the big leagues to become the second Rookie of the Year award winner in Pirates history (Jason Bay, 2004) with 23 of the 30 first-place votes. With the honor, he earned a full year of service time despite not being called up to the majors until May, making him eligible for free agency after the 2029 season.
“Our goal, first and foremost, was to make all my starts,” said Skenes, a former two-way star at Air Force who became a full-time pitcher his junior season at LSU in 2023. “And then, beyond that, it was basically to see the best version of me that I can be out there. So I felt very good about that this year. Stayed healthy and felt really good the entire year. And then the results, I think, speak for themselves.”
Skenes, 22, went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts across 133 innings. His 1.96 ERA was the lowest for any rookie with at least 20 starts in the live ball era, dating to 1920, and the lowest in baseball in 2024 among pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched. His 0.95 WHIP was tied for best in the National League. His 170 strikeouts were a franchise rookie record. His 4.3 fWAR ranked 10th among major league pitchers. With the performance, he was selected one of the three finalists for the NL Cy Young Award along with veterans Chris Sale and Zack Wheeler. That winner will be announced Wednesday.
On Monday, Merrill finished second with the other seven first-place votes and Chourio in third. Merrill, a shortstop in the minors through last season, was the San Diego Padres‘ starting center fielder on Opening Day at just 20 years old. He excelled in all facets, finishing the season with a .292/.326/.500 slash line, 24 home runs, 90 RBIs and 16 steals in 156 games while playing above-average defense. His 5.3 fWAR led all rookies.
Chourio, who doesn’t turn 21 until March, signed an $82 million extension last offseason before making his major league debut and, after a slow start, lived up to the investment. Chourio went on a tear after carrying a .201 batting average and .575 OPS through June 1, batting .305 with 16 home runs and an .888 OPS over his final 97 games.
In the American League, Gil tallied 15 of the 30 first-place votes, narrowly topping Cowser, who finished with 13 first-place votes and five points behind Gil. Oakland A’s closer Mason Miller and Cleveland Guardians reliever Cade Smith each earned one first-place vote. The five-point differential marks the second-closest election in an AL Rookie of the Year race since the three-player ballot was introduced in 2003.
“I was focused on having a good year, on helping the team win as much as I could and being focused on my career,” Gil said.
Gil entered spring training an afterthought in the Yankees’ plan, slated to start the season in the minors after being sent to minor league camp in early March. The Yankees had their starting rotation set. Gil had electric stuff but command was a concern and he logged only four innings in A-ball in 2023 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022. Then Gerrit Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, was shut down because of an elbow injury shortly thereafter, opening a spot for Gil. He did not relinquish it.
Gil went 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA in 29 starts. He led all AL rookies in wins, innings pitched (151⅔) and strikeouts (171). His 1.82 ERA through 12 starts helped the Yankees navigate the club’s 2½ months without Cole to start the season and solidified his place in the rotation for the remainder of the season. He gave up one or fewer hits in five outings, tied for the most by a rookie since the mound was moved to 60 feet, six inches in 1893, according to ESPN Research. He didn’t giver up an earned run in six of his starts, the most by a Yankees rookie since 1913.
Signed by the Minnesota Twins out of the Dominican Republic in 2015 and traded to the Yankees three years later, Gil is the 10th Yankees player to win the honor. He is the first Yankee to win it since Aaron Judge in 2017 and the first Yankees pitcher since Dave Righetti in 1981. He is the fifth Dominican-born player to win the award.
“He worked so hard to put himself in a strong position heading into spring training after coming back from Tommy John surgery,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said in a statement. “Without a guarantee of a major-league spot, he absolutely kicked in the door this spring and went on to have a phenomenal rookie season. Luis continued to mature and develop all year and was one of the pillars of our rotation.”
Unlike Gil, there was little doubt Skenes was a major league-caliber pitcher out of spring training, but the Pirates chose to not include him on their Opening Day roster. The rationale was simple: Skenes logged just 6⅔ innings as a pro in 2023 after he accumulated 122⅔ innings for LSU. So Skenes was sent to Triple-A for more seasoning and dominated on a limited workload. In seven starts, Skenes posted a 0.99 ERA with 45 strikeouts across 27⅓ innings.
Finally, on May 11, Skenes made his major league debut against the Chicago Cubs. He gave up three runs with seven strikeouts over four innings. He would give up three or more earned runs only twice more over his final 22 starts.
His first 11 outings were so dominant (1.90 ERA, 89 strikeouts to 13 walks in 66⅓ innings and seven no-hit innings in his final start of the first half against the Milwaukee Brewers) that he was named the starting pitcher for the NL All-Star team, setting the stage for an electric first inning in Arlington, Texas, against four of the sport’s best hitters. Skenes, the fifth rookie to ever start the exhibition, threw 16 pitches to Steven Kwan, Gunnar Henderson, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. He walked Soto in an otherwise clean inning. He touched 100 mph and showcased his splinker — a splitter-sinker hybrid. The sequence, like every one of his starts, was must-watch television.
He pitched into the ninth inning for the first time as a pro in his first start after the All-Star Game, taking a hard-luck 2-1 loss against the St. Louis Cardinals after giving up a run in the ninth. But Pittsburgh, despite adding players at the trade deadline, fell out of the wild-card race down the stretch.
The Pirates, cautious to not overwork Skenes, had him pitch on extra rest — either five or six days — in all of his starts. But he logged at least six innings in 16 of his 23 starts. He threw at least 100 pitches in nine of them. He closed his season strong, giving up only two runs in five September starts. His final outing was brief but spectacular: Two perfect innings at Yankee Stadium, one of the sport’s grandest stages, opposite one of his most talented peers.
The goal next year? To pitch deeper into games more often from Opening Day.
“I think just being able to stay out there for seven or eight innings rather than five or six innings every outing, that’s going to be the biggest thing,” Skenes said. “We’re starting with the end in mind. We’re going to figure out how to do that.”
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
Iowa quarterback Brendan Sullivan will miss this week’s game at Maryland and likely the rest of the regular season with an ankle injury, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday.
Cade McNamara, who opened the past two seasons as the Hawkeyes’ starter but has been out since late October with a concussion, is set to start this week against the Terrapins. McNamara, a transfer from Michigan, is listed on Iowa’s depth chart with sophomore Jackson Stratton as his backup. Sullivan is not listed.
Sullivan, a transfer from Northwestern, sustained the injury during a Nov. 11 loss at UCLA. He had 344 passing yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions and 144 rushing yards and four scores this season.
McNamara has completed 60.5% of his passes for 1,017 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions this season. Sullivan took over as Iowa’s starting quarterback after McNamara sustained his concussion in an Oct. 26 game vs. Northwestern.
McNamara missed most of last season with an ACL tear.
Iowa is 1-3 on the road this season. Former Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, the son of Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz, is serving as a senior offensive analyst for Maryland.
247 Sports first reported that Sullivan is likely to miss the rest of the season.
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