Resilient Rangers near crown Texas responds well on exit of Garcia, Scherzer

LOS ANGELES – The Texas Rangers unleashed an early barrage in an 11-7 defeat of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday to move within one victory of a first-ever World Series title.

Star shortstop Corey Seager and Marcus Semien blasted home runs as Texas seized a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Major League Baseball championship series.

Texas were rocked earlier Tuesday by confirmation that star outfielder Adolis Garcia and veteran pitcher Max Scherzer would play no further part in the series after picking up injuries in Monday’s Game 3 win in Phoenix.

But the Rangers responded to that double setback like a team determined to bring the series to a swift conclusion after a devastating burst of scoring that left them 10-0 up after the first three innings.

Texas manager Bruce Bochy praised his team’s response to news of the injuries to the talismanic Garcia and Scherzer.

“I said this earlier, before the game, I couldn’t be more proud of these guys, how they bounce back, how resilient they are, how they’ve dealt with things, whether it’s losing streaks, whether it’s injuries,” Bochy said.

“You can’t do anything about it. You know they’re going to happen occasionally. What’s important is how you handle it. And they just have handled it all so well the whole year.”

Josh Jung got the first run on the board for Texas, scrambling home from third base after a wild pitch from Miguel Castro to make it 1-0 in the top of the second.