PHOENIX — Adolis García was headed for an MRI tube and Max Scherzer walked as stiffly as a kid in a Frankenstein Halloween costume giving a poor interpretation of what Mary Shelley had in mind for the monster’s mobility. “Agony,” was the word Scherzer used to describe his physical condition, not something you ever want associated with your presumed World Series Game 7 starter.
What happened after the Rangers won Game 3 Monday night, 3–1, may decide the World Series even more than that game. Based on the MRI on García’s oblique, which appeared to snap like a guitar string on an eighth-inning swing, and how Scherzer responds to back spasms that drove him from the mound grimacing after three innings, Texas may need to replace on its roster the hitter who is having an all-time great postseason and one of their top starting pitchers.
It was such a harrowing night for Texas—even reliever Josh Sborz required medical attention after tweaking a hamstring, but he remained in the game—that at one point Rangers GM Chris Young texted his trainer with gallows humor: “Quit f------ texting me. I’m tired of you tonight.”
Says Young: “I think the first thing we need to understand is just the respective injuries and whether or not they’re severe enough to threaten the remainder of the series. And my hope is that we’ll get positive news on both Max and Doli.”
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The García decision is fairly simple. If there is any tear in the muscle in his right side, he’s out and will be replaced by Ezequiel Durán. If the Rangers find it’s a mild strain and can calm down within two or three days, they can keep him on the roster and hope he and his record 22 postseason RBI make it back.
Scherzer’s status is more complicated. He said based on his history of similar ailments, he will know in 48 hours if the spasms will allow him to pitch again in the series. He said he has endured spasms in his neck or back between five and 10 times in his career, including another World Series episode when neck spasms prevented him from starting Game 5 in 2019. He started Game 7 three days later.
“I've had it last a little bit longer, and I've had it clear in 48 hours,” Scherzer said. “It can get better, significantly better, in 48 hours. I can't tell you where we're at [right now]. I’ve got to see how bad this is and if the drugs can work.”
But the calculus for Young and the Rangers also involves how Scherzer is throwing and how much help they need on the mound the next two nights.
Scherzer is rusty. He has thrown only 9 2/3 innings in the past 48 days because of a teres major strain near his right arm. He has started on four days of rest only three times since the All-Star break. (Game 7 would be on four days.)
And while his stuff was mildly better in Game 3 in what amounts to a third glorified rehab start in the middle of postseason play, Scherzer still lacks feel and movement on his secondary stuff. He has barely used his changeup this postseason (7%, no swings and misses) and his slider lacks bite (its movement was down again in Game 3).
And now he cannot touch his toes.
Is that your best Game 7 option? Better than newly discovered bullpen ace and classically trained starter Jon Gray? And can you afford not to get an available extra arm when Andrew Heaney is starting Game 4 (against an opener, Joe Mantiply, which isn’t exactly Koufax vs. Ford), and Gray won’t be available for Games 4 and 5?
“If he can't bend over now, if he can't do that, then I don't see how in four days he's going to be ... I just need the information,” Young said. “I don't want to speculate. I'll just get the information and see. But if he comes in tomorrow and he's got a little ... I don't know.
“I'm not going to commit that we need to make the decision by tomorrow, but if it's obvious than we'd like to accelerate it.”
Barring a fast recovery from Scherzer, Gray is a better Game 7 option.
Scherzer said he first felt the spasm in his back on a pitch to Evan Longoria leading off the third inning. “And then by [Corbin] Carroll [the third batter of the inning] it was starting to tighten up more,” he said. “And then I was able to get [Ketel] Marte out. Thank God I got 'em out.”
Somehow, he made it through the inning with one walk and no runs. But when he returned to the clubhouse in between inning the spasms worsened.
“In between [innings], that's when it locked off,” he said. “I didn't have a chance to treat it. There just wasn't any way for me to release that spasm.”
After his teammates went 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth, he needed to go back to the mound quickly. He grimaced just walking the stairs from the dugout to the field. He tried a warmup pitch or two but was in obvious pain.
“This is agony,” he said. “When you have a full spasm and you lock up, you can't do anything. When it's locked, you're done. Sleeping's gonna suck. The next 24 hours is gonna suck. Hopefully, I come in in two days from now for Game 5 and I don’t know where I’ll be at but hopefully that’s when I finally turn a corner.”
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Scherzer wants Young to give him 48 hours. Young might not have the time. Depending on the severity of the spasms, Young may want to add an arm for Games 4 and 5 and know that Gray is a Game 7 option.
“We’ll have that discussion tomorrow,” Scherzer said. “Because I know at 48 hours you can see a turn. You just don’t know if they’re going to take that into account.”
Five of Scherzer’s past eight postseason starts have been compromised by health issues: the neck spasms in the 2019 World Series, the dead arm in the 2021 NLDS, the teres major strain fallout in the 2023 ALDS and ALCS and now the back spasms.
The Rangers survived the latest abbreviated start by Scherzer because Corey Seager hit another first-pitch homer—his third among his five dingers this postseason and 30th overall the past three years, the most in baseball—after a two-out single by Marcus Semien in the third drove in Nathaniel Lowe, who had won a nine-pitch duel against Brandon Pfaadt with a double. They also won because Seager started a spectacular double play behind a shaky Aroldis Chapman to end the eighth. If Seager had not done so, Arizona would have had runners at first and second with one out and Texas manager Bruce Bochy would have responded by asking his closer, José Leclerc, to get five outs, which could have affected his availability in Game 4.
Nothing seems to faze this Texas team. Not blowing the division title by getting shut out on the final day of the regular season (They are 9–0 on the road over 29 days since then.) Not getting shut down by Merrill Kelly in Game 2. Not obliques popping and backs seizing up. They Rangers are two wins away from winning the franchise’s first World Series and ending the longest such drought this side of Cleveland.
While Gray was bailing out Texas with his three innings of shutout relief, Scherzer was on a training table getting treatment. It wasn’t until the sixth inning that he managed to get himself upright. He staggered, zombie-like, to a large, cushioned chair to watch the game on a clubhouse television. The second he bent his back to sit in the chair, Scherzer writhed in pain.
He quickly tried to get back up but could not. He was helpless and in pain. Clubhouse attendants had to pull him out of the chair, like rescuing a non-swimmer from the water.
Is that the guy taking the ball for a Game 7 five days later?
“Nothing new for us,” Lowe said of the drama.
With roster decisions and bullpens on call in Game 4, the series just got more dramatic.
