PHOENIX — Adolis García wanted to try. The man who has used this MLB postseason to propel himself to prominence left Monday’s Game 3 win with an injury to his side, went for an MRI exam and was diagnosed with a moderate oblique strain. But he came to Chase Field early Tuesday anyway, even went into the batting cage and tried to swing. It became clear almost immediately that he could not do so without pain, so the Texas Rangers took their cleanup man, who was hitting .323 with eight homers in the postseason, off their World Series roster.
“It was pretty easy,” General Manager Chris Young said ahead of Game 4 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. “It’s not something that’s going to get any better over the next five to seven days.”
The Rangers also made the slightly tougher decision to drop right-hander Max Scherzer from their roster after he left his Game 3 start with back spasms following three scoreless innings. Scherzer said after the game that he usually can tell within 48 hours whether spasms like those would subside in time for him to return, but the Rangers did not have that much time to spare. They used Andrew Heaney to begin Game 4 and, despite being a career starter, the lefty had not pitched more than 3⅔ innings in an outing in October. They could not afford to be short on arms when they were two wins from their first World Series title. Plus, Young said, Scherzer’s back had not improved overnight.
“The medical team has extreme concern in terms of his ability to recover over the next two days that would allow him to pitch in this series,” Young said. “He’s been ruled out as well. If this were the regular season, these would both be [injured list stints]. We’re just at a point in time where we don’t have time to wait these things out.”
The Rangers replaced García, 30, with outfielder Ezequiel Durán on the roster and with speedy Travis Jankowski in their Game 4 lineup. (He batted ninth.) Durán, 24, hit .276 with a .768 OPS in 122 regular season games but had not appeared in the postseason. Jankowski had taken just two at-bats in the playoffs, but Manager Bruce Bochy said he was the best defender available to replace García. The Diamondbacks were planning a bullpen game in Game 4, so it was not worth trying to play matchups.
For Scherzer, the injury represents a third straight unpleasant postseason exit. He was unable to pitch in Game 6 of the 2021 National League Championship Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers because of a fatigued arm. He allowed seven runs in 4⅔ innings in his only postseason start for the New York Mets in 2022. He did not struggle in his three innings Monday, but he had to leave early and those are the games he was acquired to pitch in.
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“My feelings are for the players themselves. They’ve worked their entire lives to be on this stage and be in this moment, and they have suffered injuries that are going to take them out of that,” said Young, a former pitcher himself. “I have great empathy in terms of that.”
Southpaw Brock Burke, a 27-year-old reliever who appeared in 53 regular season games with a 4.37 ERA, took Scherzer’s roster spot.
At most, Scherzer, 39, probably would have been able to start one more game — perhaps, as Bochy speculated Tuesday, Game 7. But in García, the Rangers lose one of their key producers and one of the main sources of protection behind Marcus Semien and Corey Seager. His absence puts more pressure on rookies Evan Carter and Josh Jung, who have handled it gracefully so far but have never found themselves on a stage quite like this one. The Rangers entered Tuesday needing just two wins for a title, but they had to get them without their most prominent trade deadline acquisition and their brightest October star.
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