ARLINGTON — The Rangers offense had reached the point at which a mere spark wasn’t good enough. The battery wasn’t even clicking, much less turning over.

It needed a jolt.

The kind that could not just get it started, but potentially keep it charged up a while, too. And, of course, you know what the situation calls for when things stall out. You call for AAA: Adolis’ Awesome Actions. On Saturday, García lifted a lifeless Rangers’ offense to a 4-3 walkoff win over the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 105 mph two-run homer off former teammate Kirby Yates.

Related:Watch: Adolis García’s walkoff blast off of former Texas Ranger Kirby Yates tops Dodgers

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A walkoff homer creates a power surge under any circumstances. García, whose passion is palpable, adds a little bit voltage. After he clubbed Yates’ 1-1 fastball, with Josh Smith at second, he threw the bat down, stalked the first couple of steps to first and has his teammates waited at home plate, he shot a couple of imaginary arrows into a bullseye, stomped the last couple of feet and jumped into the arms of a throng of relieved teammates.

“He’s our spark plug, our energy guy,” Corey Seager said. “When he does something like that, it can go a long way.”

That is the Rangers’ hope. Because nothing else in the first month of the season has gotten the offense on track. Though they are 13-8, it’s been largely because of better-than-expected pitching. The offense, expected to be the team’s strength, was flat out of the gate and hasn’t found any consistency.

They’ve swung too often, walked too little and wasted too many chances. In the series opener, they were shutout 3-0, going 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and didn’t have a single productive out. For the first eight innings Saturday, the only time they advanced a runner was when Kyle Higashioka followed Dustin Harris’ leadoff walk in the third inning with a line-drive homer.

To this point, it’s been encouraging to manager Bruce Bochy the club has won despite it all, but everybody around the Rangers knows it’s unsustainable. So it’s not so much about what the homer did Saturday, but perhaps the momentum it provides for the offense long-term.

Texas Rangers’ Adolis García watches the flight of his walk-off two run home run off of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Kirby Yates that scored Josh Smith during the ninth inning of a baseball game Saturday, April 19, 2025, in Arlington, Texas.(Jeffrey McWhorter / AP)

Guys won’t need to step up and be a hero the way García was if they become a bit more selective at the plate, try a little less to homer on every pitch and maybe be willing to take a walk the way both Harris, the rookie, Smith and Seager did. The Rangers entered the game with the lowest walk percentage in baseball (5.9%) and the highest swing percentage (52.5%).

The Dodgers Japanese starters for the first two games, Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday and Roki Sasaki Saturday, with their splitters and forkballs, had exploited that weakness. The Rangers are built to lift balls into the air. They can’t hit stuff below the zone and they haven’t been able to lay off it either.

“If we can have a little better discipline,” Bochy said. “We did some chasing again today, but we did see really good pitching. We had some good swings early, but they were quick outs. Then it kind of got away from us and we couldn’t get much going there.

“There’s a fine line there. You want to be aggressive, but at the same time, try to get a good pitch to hit. Keep it simple and maybe, in some cases, get a little bit better with a two-strike approach. It’s not easy, especially against these guys.”

In the ninth and down by a run, the Rangers had the right guys at the plate. Though he missed four games earlier in the week with a sore thumb, Smith’s at-bats this season have been perhaps the most consistent on the team. He did fall behind Yates, 0-2, then pulled a splitter towards the right field foul pole. It offered a second of drama, but was clearly foul. Bochy, nevertheless, asked for a review. Maybe because, well, at that point, what did he have to lose? Didn’t get it, but Smith was able to stay back on the next pitch, a splitter away, to line it into the left field corner for a double.

How rare was that? In 0-2 counts entering the game, the Rangers had faced splitters or forkballs, pitches that dive below the zone, 13 times and swung and missed at eight of them. In any two-strike counts, they were 2 for 36. They didn’t have much of a chance.

“It kind of fooled me a little bit,” Smith said. “But I was able to keep my hands in a good place.”

It brought up García.

Three pitches later, the Rangers had their jolt. And a win.

“I’ve really been impressed by the whole team,” García said through interpreter Raul Cardenas. “The starters and the bullpen are really doing their jobs well. It’s up to us to come in and help them out. And that’s been my focus, to do just that.”

On Saturday, he did. Gave the whole team a charge. Now it’s up to the Rangers to sustain it.

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