LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Adolis Garcia smashed a solo home run in the 11th inning to give the Texas Rangers a dramatic 6-5 victory over Arizona on Friday in the 119th World Series opener.
After Corey Seager crushed a game-tying two-run homer for Texas in the ninth inning, Rangers outfielder Garcia blasted the winning homer to left field off Arizona relief pitcher Miguel Castro.
“I was thinking hit a good pitch, make a good at-bat and just give me the victory to my team,” Garcia said.
“It was an exciting moment. I was just looking into the dugout, looking at my teammates. Happy. Happy.”
The homer gave the 30-year-old Cuban outfielder 22 runs batted in during the 2023 playoffs, breaking to old one-season record of 21 set by David Freese in 2013.
The Rangers, rallying two outs from defeat, grabbed a 1-0 lead in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final with game two also at Texas on Saturday.
“There’s no quit in us, even if we’re down early,” Texas slugger Evan Carter said. “You can never count us out. We’re going to come out on fire tomorrow.”
Garcia was inspired by the Seager homer, which pulled the Rangers from the brink of defeat.
“He fired me up,” Garcia said. “I got so excited. I knew we could get the win.”
Garcia was hit on the left hand by a pitch later in the ninth but stayed in the game.
“I got lucky that it was nothing worse,” he said.
The Rangers, in their first World Series since 2011, seek the first MLB crown since the club began play in 1961 while the Diamondbacks won their only title in 2001 in their only prior World Series appearance.
Both clubs have matched the greatest MLB reversal of fortune in history, Arizona dropping 110 games in 2021 and Texas losing 102 two years ago, with one upstart assured of a title.
Arizona led 5-3 as D-backs closing relief pitcher Paul Sewald took the mound in the ninth seeking the last three outs.
After walking Leody Taveras and striking out Marcus Semien, Sewald surrendered the tying homer to Seager, who belted the ball over the right-field wall.
Texas had also equalized at 3-3 in the third inning after Arizona pitcher Zac Gallen issued his third walk in four batters to Mitch Garver with the bases loaded to force in a run.
But Tommy Pham crushed a solo homer in the fourth to give Arizona a 4-3 lead and Ketel Marte doubled in the fifth to score Geraldo Perdomo from second base for a 5-3 D-backs edge.
Marte’s double boosted his playoff hit streak, which dates to 2017, to 17 games — matching the post-season hit streak record shared by Hank Bauer, Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez.
Texas took the lead in the first as Seager walked and scored on Carter’s double.
“He beat me on a couple fastballs so I didn’t want to be late on anything else. I was trying to be a little early right there,” Carter said of his run-scoring hit.
