Before the game, the Rangers found out they were going to be without Max Scherzer and Adolis Garcia for the rest of the World Series.

Losing Scherzer is unfortunate but not that big of a deal. He wasn’t going to pitch until Game 7 anyway, and even then, with the way it’s been going for him, it would be only a couple innings.

But losing Garcia would hurt. He was having a monumental playoff run. And, other than Evan Carter, he was the only Ranger hitting consistently.

Where were the Rangers going to find the offense to make up for it? They found it. They found eleven hits, three from Josh Jung, including a double, two from Marcus Semien, including a triple and and a home run, and two from Garcia’s replacement, Travis Jankowski, including a double. Jonah Heim even contributed his first hit. It ended up on the other side of the wall.

They found eleven runs.

This is a deep team. They lost Corey Seager twice this year. Lost Garver. Lost Heim. Lost Jung. But kept winning. Maybe not at the clip they were winning in the first half of the season but won enough to get into the playoffs.

It’s the “next man up” mentality. If one guy goes down, someone carries him. Or, as Max Scherzer said after leaving the game and watching Jon Gray dominate the Diamondbacks in his absence, “This is a really good team.”

Garcia going down could have been the most devastating thing to happen to the Rangers. 

They won Game 4 of the World Series 11-7 to go ahead three games to one. You never want to venture into the World Series without Garcia. But, they had to. And, for one game, they overcame the loss.

They just need to figure out how to do it one more time. They are a really good team.

*****