Rangers Announce Underwhelming Game 4 Starter

Even though the Texas Rangers won Game 3 on Monday and have a 2-1 lead in the World Series, their fans aren't in the best mood on Tuesday. Not only did two of their best players -- Adolis Garcia and Max Scherzer -- suffer injuries in Game 3, but manager Bruce Bochy has also tabbed an underwhelming pitcher to start Game 4 against the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight.

Rangers Game 4 Starting Pitcher

The Rangers will start lefty Andrew Heaney, while the Diamondbacks will counter with a southpaw as well in Joe Mantiply.

Texas fans would probably rather see Jon Gray tonight, but he's unavailable after coming into the game early last night to replace Scherzer. Gray delivered 3 scoreless innings, so the move paid off.

Much like his regular season, Heaney's postseason has been a mixed bag. He tossed 3 2/3 innings of 1-run ball in his start against the Baltimore Orioles in the ALDS but didn't even last a full inning in his next start against the Houston Astros in the ALCS. He's been relegated to the bullpen since then, appearing briefly in a pair of low-leverage situations.

This will be Heaney's first start in 12 days, and he hasn't pitched more than an inning since Oct. 7. It's hard to have high hopes for him tonight in the biggest start of his career -- his first-ever World Series start.

Then again, Bochy doesn't really have any superior options at the moment. Dane Dunning has pitched exclusively out of the bullpen in the playoffs and has already appeared twice in this series. Ditto Martin Perez, who got shelled in Game 2.

The Rangers are just hoping Heaney can give them a few quality innings tonight before turning things over to the bullpen. We'll see if he's up to the challenge.

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