Dolis Garcia gathered the Texas Watchmen hitters in a clubhouse room Tuesday afternoon and told them that his World Series was over. Max Scherzer was also done due to injury, costing the American League champions their leadoff hitter and potential starting pitcher for Game 7.
The Vigilantes' hitters not only rallied, they swept the Arizona Rattlers like a storm in the desert. Marcus Semien's two-run triple and three-run home run propelled the Lookouts to a 10-run lead late in the third inning, Corey Seager connected on another long home run and the Lookouts won 11-7 to take a 3-1 lead in the World Series.
Los Vigilantes Stay Ahead in the Series
Nathan Eovaldi will try to seal a third consecutive wild-card World Series on Wednesday night against Zac Gallen in a rematch of the Game 1 pitchers.
A total of 42 of the 49 previous teams to take a 3-1 lead have won the World Series. The most recent club to come back from a 3-1 deficit was the Chicago Cubs against Cleveland in 2016.
Watchmen hitters built a 10-0 lead by becoming the first team in World Series history with consecutive five-run innings.
Seager's third two-run home run of the Series capped the second, Semien's drive scored the third and Jonah Heim added a home run in the eighth inning.
The Lookouts scored their first 10 runs with two outs, punishing an Arizona pitching staff that needed four pitchers to get the first eight outs.
An uncontrolled pitch by Miguel Castro brought in the first run and an error by Gold Glove-winning first baseman Christian Walker, the first by either team in the Series, led to five unearned runs in the third.
Rattlers manager Torey Lovullo noted that they did not anticipate what happened, as the game spun out of control in the space of two innings.
Seager and Semien, All-Star middle infielders signed as free agents for $500 million before the 2022 season, each have six RBIs in the Series.
Seager, the first shortstop with three home runs in the Series, has hit four homers in his last five games, including the American League Championship Series.
After leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to the title in 2020, he could join Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson as the only two-time World Series MVPs.
Jankowski, replacing Garcia in right field, singled in the second inning and hit a two-run double in the third in his first Series appearance.
The man responsible for closing out @LosRangers wins. nerves of steel! 🤯 #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/QJwwtJqryN0
- MLB Dominicana (@MLBDominicana) November 1, 2023
Texas Stayed Alert and Prepared
The Rattlers used six different pitchers against the Lookouts on Tuesday night, but the visiting team had an answer for everything that came their way.
Prior to Game 4, the Watchmen's lineup was significantly weakened due to an oblique injury to slugger Garcia.
However, the injury did not seem to diminish his 11-run effort, paving the way for the team to earn its 10th consecutive playoff road win and take a 3-1 lead in the World Series.
Arizona was trailing 5-0 at the end of the second inning and 10-0 at the end of the third. That, understandably, proved to be too high a mountain to climb for the Rattlers, despite the team's 6 runs in the eighth and ninth inning.
After the 11-7 loss, the team's margin for error has evaporated.
The rest of this series will probably provide a little more suspense than Tuesday's game, which was already settled a third of the way through thanks to standout performances by Semien and Seager.
These two players drove in a combined total of seven runs in the first three innings and were key to Texas' victory.
