The Texas Rangers are in good shape to take Game 3 of the World Series, but they may have lost their hottest hitter in the process: star outfielder and Game 1 hero Adolis Garcia, who was forced to leave with an apparent oblique injury following his at-bat in the top of the seventh inning.
Rangers star Adolis Garcia is out of the game. He grabbed his oblique after his last swing.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 31, 2023
Garcia never gets cheated at the plate, and he took another might swing here, immediately keeling over while flying out to center field.
Adolis García left the game with left side tightness after this swing in the eighth inning pic.twitter.com/2wdUk3cLOs
— kennedi landry (@kennlandry) October 31, 2023
The team has yet to offer any sort of prognosis, but if Garcia is forced to miss any time, it would be a huge blow to a Rangers offense that was already struggling to find its rhythm against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Garcia has been on an all-time tear this October: He’s already set the record for RBI in a single postseason, and he entered play Monday night with eight homers and a 1.153 OPS — including, of course, that walk-off dinger in the bottom of the 11th to win Game 1 over the weekend.
It’s obviously too early to speculate, but given how Garcia reacted — and the nature of oblique injuries — it’s hard to believe that the outfielder won’t miss at least one game. The next off day in this series would be after Game 5 on Thursday, should things go that long, with play resuming in Game 6 back in Texas on Saturday night. If Garcia can’t be in the lineup in Game 4 on Tuesday, Texas would likely turn to veteran Robbie Grossman in one of the outfield corners.
