The Texas Rangers blew a golden opportunity to take a 3-2 series lead over the Houston Astros in the ALCS in Game 5, but now instead, they will have to win two straight in Houston to advance to the World Series.
When Adolis Garcia hit a three-run home run off of Justin Verlander to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead over the Astros in the bottom of the 6th inning, it looked as if he would be one of the heroes. Instead, Rangers fans are upset with him and a number of other players. We will cover why later on.
Let's get into the four Rangers players to blame for the team's collapse in Game 5 of the ALCS against the Astros.
Aroldis Chapman
Aroldis Chapman came in for the top of the 8th inning, and he was unable to get three outs, which set of the chain of events that likely caused the Rangers to give up their lead in the 9th. Aroldis Chapman's first few pitches of the frame were wild, which is an often occurence with him. However, he came back to strike out Yordan Alvarez and then get Jose Abreu to fly out.
Next up was Kyle Tucker, who hit a double the opposite way. That led to Bruce Bochy calling in Jose Leclerc to get a four-out save. Leclerc got Michael Brandley to pop out. However, he had to sit and wait in the dugout during the bottom of the 8th before coming back out for the 9th. Aroldis Chapman not retiring Tucker was the cause of that, and an underrated crucial moment in the game.
Marcus Semien
Back in November of 2021 before the MLB lockout, the Rangers spent a ton of money on Corey Seager and Marcus Semien to be at the center of their success. While Corey Seager has held up his end of the bargain in the postseason, Marcus Semien has disappointed with only six hits so far this October, according to MLB.com. That continued in Game 5.
Marcus Semien came up with an opportunity in the 9th inning to tie the game with a hit, or at least set the Rangers up with a golden opportunity to win. After Mitch Garver and Jonah Heim singled to make it runners on first and second with no outs, Semien lined out to Grae Kessinger for the first out of the inning. It was unlucky, as it was a hard-hit ball. However, given Semien's postseason struggles, he really needed to come through with a hit there to make up for it to some level.
Adolis Garcia
As mentioned before, Adolis Garcia looked to be one of the heroes with his home run off of Verlanders. However, when he got hit in the bottom of the 8th inning, his choice to get into it with Martin Maldonado after he was hit by a pitch by Bryan Abreu was not a wise one.
Jose Leclerc had just finished the top of the 8th inning, and was waiting to come back out for the 9th. Garcia's confrontation resulted in the benches clearing and a long pause which made Leclerc wait longer. Garcia's decision iced his own closer, and obviously that came back to bite him and the Rangers.
Not only that, but Garcia was thrown out of the game. The lineup did not get back to him, but we were one batter getting on base away from Travis Jankowski hitting in Garcia's spot in the 9th with the game on the line. That obviously would not have been idea.
Jose Leclerc
There was a lot of blame sent towards Garcia, and rightfully so, but Jose Leclerc should not be absolved of blame. He did deal with sitting down for a long period of time, but letting the eight and nine hole hitters get on base was unacceptable. That is especially true for the walk of Jon Singleton ahead of Jose Altuve.
By the time Altuve came to the plate, the home run was not surprising at all. Leclerc getting himself into that situation with the top of the lineup coming to the plate was the biggest mistake, and it came back to hurt him. It is a shame because he had been great this postseason leading up to that. Hopefully for his case he will get a chance at redemption in games six and seven in Houston.
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