Rangers stay alive, force ‘one game to settle it all’
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Buster Olney, ESPN Senior Writer
HOUSTON — Adolis Garcia stood at home plate to watch his ninth-inning grand slam soar toward the Crawford Boxes in left field at Minute Maid Park Sunday night, and in that moment, the perspective of everyone in the building seemed to shift.
The Rangers players could exhale, having taken control of a tense Game 6 that they went on to win, 9-2. Astros fans immediately flooded the aisles to get out of the park, and Astros players made three outs on four pitches in the bottom of the ninth inning — perhaps in a hurry to move on to the deciding Game 7 of a series that has been wholly dominated by the visiting teams.
The home team has lost every game in this series, and the only other time that has happened in the first six games of a best-of-seven series in MLB history was in the 2019 World Series — which was lost by the Astros, to the Washington Nationals, whose Game 7 starter will be the same guy who starts tonight for Texas, Max Scherzer, the three-time Cy Young Award winner.
Nathan Eovaldi started for the Rangers in Game 6 and lived up to his long history of postseason success, allowing two runs over 6 1/3 innings and becoming only the third pitcher ever to collect eight wins in his first 10 postseason starts; David Wells and Orlando Hernandez are the others. Mitch Garver and Jonah Heim hit homers for the Rangers before Garcia finished off the Astros in the ninth, and spun the attention of everyone to what’s ahead. When the Rangers players spoke late Sunday in anticipation of Game 7, it was as if uttering Scherzer’s name alone carried the weight of implied excellence.
“Max Scherzer — Game 7,” catcher Jonah Heim said.
“Mad Max,” said Marcus Semien, the Rangers second baseman who reached base four times. “I think he’ll be well-prepared, and learn from last time.” That lineup was attacking him. I’m sure his arm gets better and better as time goes on. I’m excited to see how he bounces back.”
Cristian Javier threw the bulk of a no-hitter in the World Series last year, and this year, he will start the Game 7 that Houston needs to have a chance to win back-to-back championships; he has been throwing the ball effectively in recent weeks, gaining command of his fastball.
Scherzer is coming off a rough start in Game 3, when he allowed five runs in four innings. His fastball had life in that game, reaching 95 mph, and Scherzer had a good curveball. But his slider, a pitch which has long been his go-to selection to finish off hitters when he’s ahead in the count, betrayed him in that start. Rangers Manager Bruce Bochy said after the game that Scherzer has felt good in his side session, and he’s hopeful that the slider would be better. Said Semien: “That lineup was attacking him. I’m sure his arm gets better and better as time goes on. I’m excited to see how he bounces back.”
Scherzer joined the Rangers’ postgame celebration briefly before escaping the clubhouse without speaking with reporters. Texas officials announced after the game that Garcia would not be available.
The Houston pitching options in Game 7 could be complicated by the looming enforcement of a suspension for reliever Bryan Abreu, who is an important set-up for Astros Manager Dusty Baker. Abreu was suspended for hitting Adolis Garcia with a pitch in Game 5, and about an hour before Game 6, he appealed that suspension — and that case will be heard Monday, presumably before the start of the night game. It’s possible that if Abreu loses his appeal — or even if the suspension is reduced to one game — that he will not be available for Baker.
“That could be a huge blow,” Baker said. “I thought about using him two innings today, had the decision been made. But you’d hate to have the fine and the suspension go past tomorrow and then I wouldn’t have had Abreu tomorrow, had he gone two innings. “So you wish you had a decision. You wish you had some final decision about his status. So we took a shot there. Hopefully some of this will be postponed and we’ll have him tomorrow, as well.”
The Texas bullpen options, on the other hand, could be enhanced. Jordan Montgomery, the Rangers’ reliable left-hander, will be available in the bullpen, according to sources, and a barrage of ninth-inning runs reduced the workload of Texas closer Jose Leclerc in Game 6.
With Texas leading 3-2 in the seventh inning, Bochy relieved Eovaldi. “The makeup of this man, it’s amazing,” Bochy said. “He wants to be out there in a game like this. He has great stuff, four pitches. He’s got really good focus, maniacal focus on every pitch.”
Texas added a run in the top of the eighth, and with the Rangers protecting a 4-2 lead in the bottom half of that same inning, Leclerc was summoned for a possible five-out save, and he snuffed out the rally by striking out Jon Singleton with the bases loaded.
In the top of the ninth inning, however, the Rangers piled on five more runs, with Garcia — who was booed all night by Houston fans after his role in the bench-clearing incident in Game 5, and struck out in his first four plate appearances — burying the Astros with a grand slam homer.
When Garcia’s ball landed to stretch the Rangers lead to 9-2, Bochy suddenly had the flexibility to remove Leclerc, after just 16 pitches. Andrew Heaney took over and got three outs on four pitches to the dispirited Astros, who continue to struggle at home.
If Houston prevails in Game 7, the Astros would be the first team in history to reach the World Series having lost more than half their home games. If Texas wins, the Rangers will make their first appearance in baseball’s championship round since 2011.
“It’s been entertaining with me,” Bochy said of the series. “It’s intense. There’s no getting around it. People ask you, ‘Are you having fun?’ Yeah, it’s fun, you try to enjoy it, but it’s intense out there. That’s what I came back for, to be in this situation. It’s exciting.”
Garver said, “I said it in August — it’s going to be a dogfight all the way to the end. Really, really good ball club on both sides. They have pitching. They have hitting, but so do we. It’s one game to settle it all, and I think everyone is excited for that.”
Corey Seager has played in Game 7s before, with the Dodgers, and he didn’t hesitate when asked what he would tell his young teammates about playing in a Game 7. “That they’re a lot of fun,” he said. “They are. That’s what you want. One game to decide who’s going to win.”
Who’s going to win, who will lose, who will be home Tuesday wondering about what might’ve been.
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Dan Wetzel
Give Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti credit for this: He will advocate for what he believes is best for one of the league’s teams. That’s true even if that same program previously unleashed an avalanche of headline-grabbing public accusations and animosity on him.
In this case, it’s Michigan football, which at the height of the 2023 advanced scouting/sign-stealing scandal hit Petitti with a blistering legal filing, claims of personal bias and choruses of boos and negative social media posts from fans.
Regardless, Petitti has sent a letter to the NCAA Committee on Infractions arguing that Michigan deserved no further punishment in a case focusing on the actions of former staffer Connor Stalions.
The letter was read at an early June infractions committee hearing in Indianapolis, multiple sources told ESPN. The NCAA has charged Michigan with 11 rule violations, six of them Level 1, which is classified as the most serious. The committee has yet to hand down a ruling, but one is expected before the 2025 season. It does not have to follow or even consider Petitti’s opinion.
The Big Ten confirmed to ESPN that Petitti sent the letter and said he would have attended in person but was recovering at the time from hip replacement surgery. The NCAA and Michigan are prohibited from commenting on a pending case. Petitti declined comment through a league spokesperson.
Petitti argued, sources said, that the Big Ten itself had already sufficiently punished the Michigan program when it suspended then-coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games of the 2023 regular season: at Penn State, at Maryland and at home against Ohio State.
Even without Harbaugh, Michigan won all three en route to capturing the national championship.
The NCAA might still hit the Wolverines with penalties ranging from vacating past victories, a postseason ban, the suspension of coaches, a monetary fine or other measures.
Michigan, as ESPN previously reported, has proposed suspending current coach Sherrone Moore for the third and fourth game of the 2025 season for deleting a thread of text messages with Stalions as the scandal broke. Moore was the team’s offensive coordinator at the time. The NCAA was able to retrieve the texts, and Moore was not charged with having any knowledge of Stalions’ actions.
The NCAA could also punish individuals, including Harbaugh (now the coach of the Los Angeles Chargers), Stalions and others. Petitti’s letter did not address that, according to sources.
The concept of a league commissioner standing up for one of his conference’s teams is not unusual. The business of any conference is aided by its programs avoiding NCAA sanctions that might affect its ability to field competitive teams.
Petitti’s position is notable in this situation because of the extremely contentious relationship between him and Michigan when allegations first broke of Stalions sending friends and family to scout future Wolverine opponents and film sideline coaching signals.
Petitti, in a Nov. 10, 2023, letter to Michigan athletics director Warde Manual, laid out the Harbaugh suspension by arguing that “the integrity of competition is the backbone of any sports conference or league.” He noted that “taking immediate action is appropriate and necessary.”
Michigan, to put it lightly, disagreed.
The school vehemently fought back, arguing that due process had not been followed, the case lacked conclusive evidence, and there was no proof that Harbaugh had knowledge of Stalions’ activities.
The university even sought an emergency temporary restraining order in Washtenaw (Michigan) County Court against the Big Ten to let Harbaugh keep coaching.
In a fiery court filing, the school claimed the Big Ten’s actions “were fraudulent, unlawful, unethical, unjustified, and per se wrongful, and were done with malice.” It further claimed the league was causing irreparable damage to the reputations of Harbaugh and the university, declaring the suspension a “flagrant breach of fundamental fairness.”
The school eventually backed down and withdrew the restraining order request, but the rift between the team and the commissioner remained as Harbaugh was benched.
The suspension became a rallying cry for Michigan players as they continued their 15-0 season. Petitti chose to not attend the Ohio State-Michigan game in Ann Arbor that season, even though it was one of the biggest games in league history. The Big Ten said Petitti was never scheduled to attend the game.
A week later, at the Big Ten title game, Michigan fans lustily booed Petitti when he presented the championship trophy to injured Wolverines player Zak Zinter (notably, not Harbaugh, despite having completed his suspension by then).
All of that appears to be behind the commissioner. To Petitti, making Michigan overcome a three-game stretch without its head coach was apparently enough of a penalty. He noted in his initial 2023 decision that the suspension was not about Harbaugh but was a way to hit the program as a whole.
“We impose this disciplinary action even though the Conference has not yet received any information indicating that Head Football Coach Harbaugh was aware of the impermissible nature of the sign-stealing scheme,” Petitti wrote. “This is not a sanction of Coach Harbaugh. It is a sanction against the University.”
He also allowed that “additional disciplinary actions may be necessary or appropriate if [the NCAA or Big Ten] receives additional information concerning the scope and knowledge of, or participation in, the impermissible scheme.”
That Petitti is now suggesting that Michigan has paid its penance suggests no such additional information has emerged.
Apparently, bygones are now bygones, even B1G ones.
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Eli Lederman
Days after landing No. 1 outside linebacker Tyler Atkinson, Texas secured its latest five-star addition Sunday when coveted rusher Derrek Cooper, ESPN’s No. 1 running back in the 2026 class, announced his commitment to the Longhorns.
Cooper, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound recruit from Chaminade-Madonna Preparatory School in Hollywood, Florida, is the seventh-ranked prospect in the 2026 ESPN 300. After an unofficial trip to Texas in April, Cooper did not officially visit the program before choosing the Longhorns over finalists Florida State, Georgia, Miami and Ohio State on Sunday night.
Cooper’s father told ESPN that the presence of Longhorns running back coach Chad Scott, who replaced former assistant Tashard Choice in February, and the all-purpose role Texas coach Steve Sarkisian laid out for Cooper in the program’s offense were leading factors in his son’s decision.
“They’ve talked about his skill set and compared his build to [former UT running back] Bijan Robinson,” Corey Cooper told ESPN. “They don’t have a running back like Derrek right now. They feel like they can do a lot with him.”
Derrek Cooper is the fourth five-star pledge in the Longhorns’ 2026 class and continues a summer recruiting tear for the Longhorns, who have added 10 ESPN 300 commits since June 1.
Cooper’s commitment comes days after Texas edged Georgia for the pledge of Atkinson — No. 14 in the 2026 ESPN 300 and the No. 1 prospect in the state of Georgia — then flipped four-star Bulldogs defensive line commit James Johnson (No. 123 overall) later in the day.
Cooper is the second-highest ranked of six top-100 recruits committed to Sarkisian’s incoming class, joining Atkinson, fellow five-star pledges Dia Bell (No. 4) and Richard Wesley (No. 11), and four-stars John Turntine III (No. 43) and Samari Matthews (No. 99).
A gifted two-way star at Chaminade-Madonna Prep, Cooper trails only fellow Texas pledge Bell — ESPN’s No. 1 quarterback in 2026 — as the second-ranked recruit in Florida this cycle.
Cooper was credited with 124 carries for 905 yards and 13 touchdowns as a junior last fall while leading Chaminade-Madonna Prep to a 1A state championship. In 2024, he added 46 total tackles and four sacks on defense, where he was a linebacker and safety.
Cooper will join a potentially crowded running back group next year with as many as five current Texas rushers eligible to return in 2026. However, with elite pass-catching ability out of the backfield, Cooper’s versatility could create early opportunities in a Longhorns offense that has routinely found clever ways to use skill position talents under Sarkisian.
“He wants to run, he wants to be able to catch the ball out of the backfield, he wants to line up at wide receiver,” Cooper’s father said. “He wants to show he has all the skills to play at the next level, and they’re going to let him do that at Texas.”
Upon Cooper’s pledge, defensive end Jake Kreul (No. 22 overall) stands as the last uncommitted player among ESPN’s 23 five-star prospects in 2026. Savion Hiter and Davian Groce, ESPN’s No. 2 and No. 4 running back prospects, respectively, are the only uncommitted running backs in the 2026 ESPN 300.
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