How Rangers beat the Diamondbacks in Game 4 to take 3-1 World Series lead

Texas is one win away from the franchise's first-ever World Series title.

The Athletic MLB Staff and more

(Jamie Squire / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Rangers’ bats dominate Diamondbacks in Game 4 win as Texas nears first World Series title

(Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

On the first day of December 2021, hours before the owners of Major League Baseball locked out the players, the Texas Rangers orchestrated a series of press conferences to introduce their new $500 million middle infield. Marcus Semien and Corey Seager both left contenders to sign with a franchise that had not posted a winning record in five seasons. The money influenced their decision. And so — the players said — did the vision put forth by Rangers officials.

“We’ve laid it out, we’ve been authentic, we’ve been very transparent,” Texas general manager Chris Young said that day. “We were a 102-loss team. We haven’t run from that. But we have a vision, we have a plan, and this is how we’re going to accomplish it. Does this scare you? Are you afraid? Do you want to be part of this? You want to do something special that’s never been done in Texas Ranger history?”

History is almost upon them, after an 11-7 thrashing of the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday. The Rangers are one victory from capturing their first championship. The trajectory did not follow a straight line. Texas lost more than they won in 2022, a skid serious enough that owner Ray Davis fired manager Chris Woodward and longtime head of baseball operations Jon Daniels. But Young remained. So did Semien and Seager, who steadied this club all summer and powered the Texas offense in Tuesday’s laugher at Chase Field.

Rangers take Game 4

And that's your ballgame. Rangers win 11-7 and are one win away from the franchise's first-ever World Series title.

It's back to a rematch of Game 1 between Zac Gallen for the Diamondbacks and Nate Eovaldi for the Rangers.

Arizona didn't go quietly, with back-to-back singles against Will Smith to start the inning before he struck out Marte and Carroll.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy brought in his closer, José Leclerc, to face Moreno. Moreno had gotten up earlier in the inning, and it seemed like maybe Smith would be able to finish it out, but Bochy made his walk to the mound.

With two on and two out, Moreno singled up the middle to bring the Diamondbacks into grand slam range. But Walker popped out in foul territory to end the game.

Leclerc earned the save on Monday. He pitched in back-to-back days just six times in the regular season — none before the All-Star break — and three times in the playoffs. He hasn't pitched three days in a row this season.

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11-7 Rangers in the bottom of the ninth

It's a little shocking to use José Leclerc on back-to-back nights when there's a 6-run lead and another game tomorrow, but this is the sort of urgency, I suppose, that a World Series warrants?

You're getting a look at why the Rangers' bullpen was so maligned this season

Bruce Bochy used his A-guys last night, and with an 11-1 lead, the idea was to get through tonight using only one, or perhaps two of the guys he's trying to stay away from. Well, it's 11-5 now, which isn't that close, but with two runners on, it's a lot closer than it should be, and now José Leclerc is warming up.

One last chance

The Diamondbacks are down to their last three outs, staring down a six-run deficit.

It might have been much larger if not for reliever Ryne Nelson, who took the ball to start the fourth inning and didn’t hand it to manager Torey Lovullo until there was one out in the ninth. He allowed just three hits — a Josh Jung single, a Jonah Heim homer and a Corey Seager ground-rule double — over 5 1/3 innings, walking none and striking out six. He earned an ovation from the Chase Field crowd, and he deserved every bit of it.

One thing to monitor from the top of the ninth: Rangers rookie Evan Carter stood in against reliever Andrew Saalfrank and took a fastball off his left hand. Technically, the ball struck both bat and hand, but they gave him a hit by pitch, and, hoo boy, he looked to be hurting. Carter stayed in the game. The Rangers don’t need any more injuries to add to the mix

Arizona cuts into the Rangers lead

The Diamondbacks, as Joe Davis has told us many times tonight, aren't giving up. A three-run homer by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. makes it 11-5.

Chris Stratton — rush chairman, damn glad to meet you — replaced Brock and got a sac fly out of Pham before giving up the homer to Gurriel.

The Rangers now sit just 30 outs from their first-ever World Series title. They, of course, have been closer. (Too soon?)

Brock Burke is in — and out — for the Rangers

The 27-year-old lefty was added to the roster before Tuesday's game, replacing Max Scherzer on the roster.

Burke appeared in 53 games for the Rangers this season, going 5-3 with a 4.37 ERA. He was 7-5 with a 1.97 ERA in 52 appearances in 2022.

After getting Marte to fly out, the Diamondbacks recorded three straight singles — by Carroll, Moreno and Walker — before being pulled. I'm sure the Rangers had hoped he could finish off the game so they didn't have to use anyone else, but with bases loaded, it was time to try to shut the door.

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Jonah Heim extends the Rangers lead

Ryne Nelson’s fifth inning of work began with Jonah Heim cracking a solo shot to right field. For Nelson, it didn’t really matter. He’s eating important innings for his team, and an 11-1 deficit ain’t noticeably different than a 10-1 one. For Heim, though, the swing was crucial. He had yet to record a hit in the World Series, and he entered the game batting .207 this postseason. There’s a lot more in that bat, and he just showed it.

11-1 Rangers in the 8th inning

We are starting to see more and more of those Stand Up 2 Cancer handouts being made into paper airplanes and set a flight from the upper levels. Just after the Jonah Heim home run to make it 11-1, one from the third base side made it out to the middle of the infield and got to within 10 feet or so of DBacks pitcher Ryne Nelson. This is pretty harmless stuff, as projectiles-thrown-on-the-field go, but it's still not ideal.

What a great play by Travis Jankowski to end the seventh. Who needs Adolis Garcia?

Jankowski is probably the star of the night, something I can't imagine any of us saw coming, but here he is — 2 for 3 with 2 RBI and a heck of a catch.

Before this year, Jankowski's only playoff experience was with the Reds in 2020. He spent his first five years with the Padres and was traded to the Reds before the 2020 season. He then signed with the Phillies in 2021. He signed with the Mets for 2022 and the Mariners picked him up off of waivers in August, but played just one game for Seattle before he was released by them and signed back with the Mets, but didn't play for them.

This year he signed with the Rangers and appeared in 107 games, hitting .263/.357/.332 with one homer and 19 steals.

The Diamondbacks have nine outs left. They trail, 10-1

Ryne Nelson has really saved the Diamondbacks bullpen here. They’d burned Joe Mantiply, Miguel Castro, Kyle Nelson and Luis Frías in the first three innings. They needed distance. Nelson (Ryne) has provided it. Nelson is at 45 pitches. How long will Torey Lovullo let the kid keep this up?

Josh Jung knocked a single up the middle in the seventh inning — the only blemish on Nelson’s pitching line — for his third hit of the ballgame.

Rangers lead 10-1 in the 7th inning

Heaney's done, but certainly gave the Rangers everything they needed — especially with the big lead.

There's not really been an advance in on-field eyewear in the last 20 or so years. It seems like it went from Rec Specs to Oakleys. And we've been there ever since. I was a Rec Specs guy in high school, because, well, it was the 90s. I was also an eye-black guy, so when I'd pull the Rec Specs down and keep them around my neck between innings, I'd get two lines on my jersey from the bottom of the Rec Specs where they'd touch the eye black.

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The Diamondbacks have their answer to Corey Seager: His name is Nelson

No, not Kyle Nelson. Seager took him deep.

Ryne Nelson. To complete his third consecutive 1-2-3 inning in relief, this Nelson fired four fastballs toward a guy who feasts on ’em. Seager let the first one go for a ball, fouled off the next two and then swung through a heater at the letters. The mighty Seager had struck out.

It’s still 10-1 Rangers as we head to the bottom of the sixth.

A fun factoid

As of 8:33pm last night when we spoke postgame, Andrew Heaney had not been informed whether or not he was starting Game 4 of the World Series. 22+ hours later, not only did he start, but he's in line to get the win, becoming the first Rangers starter not named Eovaldi or Montgomery to get a win for the Rangers this postseason (Montgomery also picked up a win in relief, following Max Scherzer in Game 7 of the ALCS)

Andrew Haney gets through five innings

Andrew Heaney made it through five innings for the first time since Aug. 29, when he went 5.1 innings against the Mets. He pitched six innings in just seven of his 32 appearances this season. Heaney's at 79 pitches — six fewer than he threw in his final regular-season start on Sept. 30, when he had 85 pitched in 4.1 innings against the Mariners. He threw 81 pitches in that start against the Mets at Citi Field.

Another cap tip to Ryne Nelson

He is through two perfect innings in relief. He diced up the Rangers in the fifth, striking out Jonah Heim and getting weak fly balls from Nathaniel Lowe and Leody Taveras.

If we may talk seriously, for a moment, about the Diamondbacks’ road to a comeback. Not a game comeback, but a series comeback if they lose this game. The Dbacks need to tax the Rangers bullpen. They can’t let Andrew Heaney cover five or six innings here. They can’t let Dane Dunning carry things the rest of the way. The Dunning-Heaney effect would allow the Rangers to bring a fully loaded “A” bullpen into Game 5, likely with a chance to close out the Diamondbacks. A little rally here. A little bingo there. Make bodies move in the bullpen. I think the Diamondbacks are still certainly capable of achieving that in Game 4.

A fan ran on the field here in the top of the fifth

Based on his tackle-evading skills, I'm going to guess that he did not play tailback at any level. He was promptly tackled and removed from the field, which is what happens. As he was leaving, the public address announcer calmly reminded everyone that fans are not allowed on the field. "You will be arrested, and taken to jail." I don't know why that's so funny to me — I think we all know??? — but it was. I laughed a lot. Good job, Chase Field announcer guy. Your dry sense of humor, intentional or not, was appreciated.

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Arizona gets on the board

Before tonight, I had no idea that Gordon Ramsay not only still had shows on TV, but he has two. Who knew? And then I typed into Bing, my preferred search engine, to see just what the names of those shows were and at least one link told me he has seven. Seven! (Although it should be noted that the two they are showing commercials for — "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Hell's Kitchen" — are the only two currently showing on Fox, I think. One of the other shows is in the UK and another is on Disney+.)

The SAG-AFTRA strike can't end soon enough.

I'm usually pretty busy at night during the summer and most of my viewing of new things is done on some sort of subscription app, not live. I'm currently watching "The Morning Show" and catching up on that. It's fine. I'm really excited about the fourth season of "For All Mankind." That show has been one of my favorites the last couple of years.

Oh, hey, the Diamondbacks got something going with a walk, a double and a sac fly to cut the lead to 9.

Dane Dunning is warming, and that's probably a good thing

Despite coming into the inning with a 10-run lead, Andrew Heaney has thrown first-pitch balls to four out of the five hitters he has faced (the other, Christian Walker, hit a first-pitch double). He'll likely be done after the LHH Alek Thomas.

The fifth reliever’s the charm

Right-hander Ryne Nelson entered for the Diamondbacks in the fourth and worked a 1-2-3 inning, for which he deserves a medal because we’ve got a looooong way to go here. Mitch Garver struck out. Evan Carter grounded out to Christian Walker at first (Walker elected not to run to the base, not throw over … which seems safe). Josh Jung, who had singled and doubled in his first two at-bats, flew out.

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