World Series 2023: How Adolis Garcia became the ultimate postseason hero - ESPN

ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Theybarreled out of the first-base dugout in a flash, congregating around home plate so quickly that Texas Rangers outfielder Evan Carter said they might have arrived there even before Adolis García reached first base.

It was almost as if they'd anticipated another moment like this.

After bursting onto the scene in the summer of 2021, García has spent the fall of 2023 putting together one of the most captivating postseason performances in baseball history, dazzling with his glove and his legs and, mostly, his bat. When he settled into the batter's box in the 11th inning of the opening game of this Fall Classic on Friday night, his teammates — really, all of Globe Life Field — seemed to expect something. What followed was the first walk-off home run in Game 1 of the World Series since Kirk Gibson's legendary drive in 1988.

This is the type of legacy García is building.

«I don't think I ever imagined that these types of things would be happening to me,» said García, speaking in Spanish, moments after sealing the Rangers' 6-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. «But I'm very grateful and happy, and I'm just going to keep giving it my best to help us win it all.»

García, 30, has homered in five consecutive playoff games, one shy of the major league record. His total for the postseason is now at eight, just two fewer than the 2020 output from Randy Arozarena, his minor league roommate and best friend. That walk-off home run was his 22nd RBI this postseason, breaking the all-time record set by David Freese, the former St. Louis Cardinals third baseman, during a 2011 run that famously left Rangers fans devastated.

«When he gets hot, it's really hot,» Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien said of García.