Texas Rangers Take Pivotal World Series Game 3 Over Arizona Diamondbacks
PHOENIX — The Texas Rangers rode their bullpen hard again and it paid off big time.
The Rangers escaped with a pivotal 3-1 World Series Game 3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night at Chase Field.
The Rangers have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 is set for 7:03 p.m. (CT) Tuesday in Phoenix.
The Rangers have won nine consecutive road games in the postseason, tying a record last set by the 1996-97 New York Yankees.
Jon Gray pitched three scoreless innings of one-hit relief in an emergency role behind starter Max Scherzer, and Josh Sborz followed with a scoreless inning before Aroldis Chapman pitched the eighth.
Chapman, who has been shaky in the postseason, was greeted with a leadoff double to right field by pinch-hitter Emmanuel Rivera. Geraldo Perdomo's RBI single scored Rivera to pull the D-Backs to within 3-1.
Jose Leclerc pitched a perfect ninth to earn the save. The Rangers bullpen held the D-backs to one run over the final six innings.
Chapman regrouped, however, and froze Corbin Carroll with an 89.4 mph slider in the heart of the strike zone for the first out. Ketel Marte grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
The Rangers scored three times against Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt in the third to take a 3-0 lead. Nathaniel Lowe led off with a double to the right-center gap and scored on Marcus Semien's two-out single. Corey Seager homered on a first-pitch, 86.7 mph changeup to make it 3-0. Seager hit his homer 421 with an exit velocity of 114.5 mph.
“Just battled. He’s been hot,” Semien said of Pfaadt. “We’ve been watching him all playoffs do what he’s done. We had to come through in big situations. We got to Two outs and we were able to score. That’s huge for us. That’s what we need to do in big situations in the biggest games of our lives.”
In the bottom of the second, Texas' defense came up huge. After Christian Walker led off the inning with a double, Adolis Garcia threw him out at home trying to score on Tommy Pham's single. Walker was given the stop sign at third base but he blew right past it and was thrown out easily by Garcia.
With Pham on second, Scherzer got Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to pop out for the second. Third baseman Josh Jung finished the inning with another spectacular defensive play. Alek Thomas' hard shot up the middle ricocheted off of Scherzer's elbow and backside before Jung scooped it up with his bare hand and threw a strike to first.
Scherzer left after three scoreless innings with back tightness before Gray took over. Gray struck out three and walked none. Garcia left the game late with left-side tightness.
World Series Game 3: Rangers 3, Diamondbacks 1
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