Adolis Garcia plays hero again. Here’s how he saved the day Friday for Texas Rangers.
Two friendly reminders about Saturday’s baseball game at Globe Life Field.
First pitch is scheduled for 3:05 p.m., three hours earlier than the typical Saturday start time.
The game will be broadcast on Bally Sports Southwest Plus, thanks to the Dallas Mavericks opening the NBA postseason Saturday afternoon.
The Texas Rangers will be looking to win their second straight game.
That’s right: They scored runs Friday night, and for the first time this season beat the Houston Astros.
There was a lot more to it than that.
Here’s some Rangers Reaction from a 7-5 walk-off victory in 10 innings.
Garcia delievers
Ask manager Chris Woodward a question, and he’s going to give an answer. So, when he was asked Thursday morning which Rangers player was the team’s best hitter, he gave a lot of answers.
Currently, he said, the best hitter is Adolis Garcia. He’s been the most consistent in terms of the quality of his at-bats and with how hard he’s been hitting balls.
Anyone going to argue that after Friday night?
“At the end of the day we had the best hitter on the planet in the right spot, and he came through again,” Woodward said.
Someone might want to argue that, but Garcia delivered the first walk-off homer in Globe Life Field history with a three-run shot with two outs in the 10th inning to snap the Rangers’ three-game losing streak.
It was an opposite-field blast, just as his first career homer was last month in extra innings at Tropicana Field.
Once again, Garcia delivered. He has three go-ahead homers in extra innings.
Even he is starting to be in awe of what he’s doing.
“It does surprise me, but I’m prepared for those situations and always ready to go,” Garcia said.
The homer followed the third walk of the game by Joey Gallo, who didn’t bite at multiple sliders off the plate from right-hander Bryan Abreu. He pitched so tentatively, throwing only one pitch in the zone, that it looked as if the Astros were pitching around him to get to Garcia.
“It seemed like it,” Woodward said. “He did a good job laying off it.”
Garcia also collected a two-run double in the fourth inning off of Astros starter Taylor Ivey, the former Rockwall Heath High pitcher who was making his MLB debut.
Garcia, a 28-year-old rookie who has taken the American League by storm, now has 35 RBIs in only 37 games. He didn’t make his 2020 debut until April 13 following the season-ending knee injury to Ronald Guzman.
He leads all MLB rookies in home runs (12) and RBIs.
Gibson delivers
The Rangers felt confident entering the game, and rightfully so, because their best pitcher was starting. Kyle Gibson had to work, but he still managed a ninth straight quality start.
He needed some run support. That was a big ask, considering the Rangers hadn’t scored in 22 innings. That drought reached 24 straight frames before Brock Holt, fresh off the injured list, connected for his first homer of the season in the third inning.
It was 4-1 when Gibson exit after 106 pitches.
“It’s pretty much every start you can count on him to give you six or seven and give up hardly any runs,” Woodward said. “He’s executing. He’s hitting spots. He doesn’t seem to get phased.”
His ninth consecutive quality starts matched the team record, done eight times but not since Yu Darvish did it spanning the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Gibson is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA in those nine starts.
Lowe delivers
Scoring on the Garcia double was first baseman Nate Lowe, who singled two batters earlier to snap an 0-for-15 slide that had dropped his average to .250. He appeared to either wave goodbye to the skid or mockingly wave as if he wanted the ball for a milestone hit.
He came through again an inning later, trumping the Astros’ move to bring in lefty reliever Kent Emanuel. The lefty-hitting Lowe singled to bring in catcher Jose Trevino with an insurance run.
Trevino, by the way, singled twice. So did Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who again had a terrific game at shortstop and swiped two bases. Gallo followed both Lowe singles with walks, and also scored on the Garcia double.
“There were a ton of things,” Woodward said.
He hasn’t said that much about the offense lately.
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 12:20 AM.
