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.”
The 2025 MLB All-Star Home Run Derby is fast approaching — and the field is set.
Braves hometown hero Ronald Acuna Jr. became the first player to commit to the event, which will be held at Truist Park in Atlanta on July 14 (8 p.m. ET on ESPN). He was followed by MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, James Wood of the Washington Nationals, Byron Buxton of the Minnesota Twins, Oneil Cruz of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays, Brent Rooker of the Athletics and Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the New York Yankees.
On Friday, however, Acuna was replaced by teammate Matt Olson.
With all the entrants announced, let’s break down their chances at taking home this year’s Derby prize.
Full All-Star Game coverage: How to watch, schedule, rosters, more
2025 home runs: 17 | Longest: 434 feet
Why he could win: Olson is a late replacement for Acuna as the home team’s representative at this year’s Derby. Apart from being the Braves’ first baseman, however, Olson also was born in Atlanta and grew up a Braves fan, giving him some extra motivation. The left-handed slugger led the majors in home runs in 2023 — his 54 round-trippers that season also set a franchise record — and he remains among the best in the game when it comes to exit velo and hard-hit rate.
Why he might not: The home-field advantage can also be a detriment if a player gets too hyped up in the first round. See Julio Rodriguez in Seattle in 2023, when he had a monster first round, with 41 home runs, but then tired out in the second round.
2025 home runs: 36 | Longest: 440 feet
Why he could win: It’s the season of Cal! The Mariners’ catcher is having one of the greatest slugging first halves in MLB history, as he’s been crushing mistakes all season . His easy raw power might be tailor-made for the Derby — he ranks in the 87th percentile in average exit velocity and delivers the ball, on average, at the optimal home run launch angle of 23 degrees. His calm demeanor might also be perfect for the contest as he won’t get too amped up.
Why he might not: He’s a catcher — and one who has carried a heavy workload, playing in all but one game this season. This contest is as much about stamina as anything, and whether Raleigh can carry his power through three rounds would be a concern. No catcher has ever won the Derby, with only Ivan Rodriguez back in 2005 even reaching the finals.
2025 home runs: 24 | Longest: 451 feet
Why he could win: He’s big, he’s strong, he’s young, he’s awesome, he might or might not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. This is the perfect opportunity for Wood to show his talent on the national stage, and he wouldn’t be the first young player to star in the Derby. He ranks in the 97th percentile in average exit velocity and 99th percentile in hard-hit rate, so he can still muscle the ball out in BP even if he slightly mishits it. His long arms might be viewed as a detriment, but remember the similarly tall Aaron Judge won in 2017.
Why he might not: His natural swing isn’t a pure uppercut — he has a pretty low average launch angle of just 6.2 degrees — so we’ll see how that plays in a rapid-fire session. In real games, his power is primarily to the opposite field, but in a Home Run Derby you can get more cheapies pulling the ball down the line.
2025 home runs: 20 | Longest: 479 feet
Why he could win: Buxton’s raw power remains as impressive as nearly any hitter in the game. He crushed a 479-foot home run earlier this season and has four others of at least 425 feet. Indeed, his “no doubter” percentage — home runs that would be out of all 30 parks based on distance — is 75%, the highest in the majors among players with more than a dozen home runs. His bat speed ranks in the 89th percentile. In other words, two tools that could translate to a BP lightning show.
Why he might not: Buxton is 31 and the Home Run Derby feels a little more like a younger man’s competition. Teoscar Hernandez did win last year at age 31, but before that, the last winner older than 29 was David Ortiz in 2010, and that was under much different rules than are used now.
2025 home runs: 16 | Longest: 463 feet
Why he could win: If you drew up a short list of players everyone wants to see in the Home Run Derby, Cruz would be near the top. He has the hardest-hit ball of the 2025 season, and the hardest ever tracked by Statcast, a 432-foot missile of a home run with an exit velocity of 122.9 mph. He also crushed a 463-foot home run in Anaheim that soared way beyond the trees in center field. With his elite bat speed — 100th percentile — Cruz has the ability to awe the crowd with a potentially all-time performance.
Why he might not: Like all first-time contestants, can he stay within himself and not get too caught up in the moment? He has a long swing, which will result in some huge blasts, but might not be the most efficient for a contest like this one, where the more swings a hitter can get in before the clock expires, the better.
2025 home runs: 23 | Longest: 425 feet
Why he could win: Although Caminero was one of the most hyped prospects entering 2024, everyone kind of forgot about him heading into this season since he didn’t immediately rip apart the majors as a rookie. In his first full season, however, he has showed off his big-time raw power — giving him a chance to become just the third player to reach 40 home runs in his age-21 season. He has perhaps the quickest bat in the majors, ranking in the 100th percentile in bat speed, and his top exit velocity ranks in the top 15. That could translate to a barrage of home runs.
Why he might not: In game action, Caminero does hit the ball on the ground quite often — in fact, he’s on pace to break Jim Rice’s record for double plays grounded into in a season. If he gets out of rhythm, that could lead to a lot of low line drives during the Derby instead of fly balls that clear the fences.
2025 home runs: 19 | Longest: 440 feet
Why he could win: The Athletics slugger has been one of the top power hitters in the majors for three seasons now and is on his way to a third straight 30-homer season. Rooker has plus bat speed and raw power, but his biggest strength is an optimal average launch angle (19 degrees in 2024, 15 degrees this season) that translates to home runs in game action. That natural swing could be picture perfect for the Home Run Derby. He also wasn’t shy about saying he wanted to participate — and maybe that bodes well for his chances.
Why he might not: Rooker might not have quite the same raw power as some of the other competitors, as he has just one home run longer than 425 feet in 2025. But that’s a little nitpicky, as 11 of his home runs have still gone 400-plus feet. He competed in the college home run derby in Omaha while at Mississippi State in 2016 and finished fourth.
2025 home runs: 17 | Longest: 442 feet
Why he could win: Chisholm might not be the most obvious name to participate, given his career high of 24 home runs, but he has belted 17 already in 2025 in his first 61 games after missing some time with an injury. He ranks among the MLB leaders in a couple of home run-related categories, ranking in the 96th percentile in expected slugging percentage and 98th percentile in barrel rate. His raw power might not match that of the other participants, but he’s a dead-pull hitter who has increased his launch angle this season, which might translate well to the Derby, even if he won’t be the guy hitting the longest home runs.
Why he might not: Most of the guys who have won this have been big, powerful sluggers. Chisholm is listed at 5-foot-11, 184 pounds, and you have to go back to Miguel Tejada in 2004 to find the last player under 6 foot to win.
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