Helman's dream series continues with homer and robbery to lead gritty Rangers

ARLINGTON -- These are the Texas Rangers, and this is the summer they turned gritty.

The Rangers’ plethora of injuries is well documented at this point. The unsung heroes that have stepped up are not strangers at this point either, as the club continues rattling off wins to stay in the thick of the American League Wild Card race.

Down four All-Stars in addition to multiple other major contributors, you think they would come back down to earth eventually.

“Eventually” wasn’t today.

For the second day in a row, Rangers rookie Michael Helman put the team on his back. The 29-year-old robbed a homer in the fifth inning before launching a game-tying, two-run shot of his own in the bottom half of the frame, helping to propel Texas to a 5-4 win over the Brewers, securing a series victory at Globe Life Field. The performance came after he belted a grand slam in the opener.

Helman has done so much this series that Brewers manager Pat Murphy joked that they might intentionally walk him four times in Wednesday’s series finale.

“This was Helman's game,” said Rangers starter Jack Leiter, who allowed three runs in 4 2/3 innings. “It’s two in a row …It's a pretty unbelievable two days. I'm sure he'd say that's pretty hard to top for the best two days of his life. It’s incredible. He's a really good player, works super hard and is just a great guy all around. It's cool to see something like that happen. He's earned it.”

Helman didn’t exactly want to answer if this had actually been the best 24 hour stretch of his life, pointing to his wedding day and the birth of his son. But it’s definitely close.

"A huge adrenaline rush,” Helman said when asked about the past 24 hours. “I couldn’t sleep last night. I had a bunch of adrenaline still going. But it’s cool. It’s fun. I just want to play the game hard, play the game right. When I'm on defense, I'm willing to put my body on the line to go make plays. When you play the game hard, good things usually happen.”

Helman now has 17 RBIs in his past 17 games dating back to July 21. Tuesday night, he became the first Rangers player with five or more homers and 17 or more RBIs within his first 22 since Nathaniel Lowe in 2021 (5 HR, 18 RBIs).

Not too bad for a guy who's had many trips through the waiver wire.

“I'm happy for this guy,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “Here he is getting a chance and taking full advantage of it. He's been fun to watch. … He's had two terrific games, but he's helped us in some other games too. He's spent a lot of time in the Minor Leagues and put on waivers, all those things. I couldn't be happier for a guy like this. We're having fun with it, watching this guy play so well.”

In just two days, Helman has become the face of the comeback victories that evaded the Rangers for so much of this season.

The Rangers led in a tight, 1-0 game for much of the first four innings as Leiter labored through his day. The Brewers scored three in the top of the fifth to end Leiter’s outing and take their first lead.

It wouldn’t last long.

Helman’s homer opened the scoring in the four-run fifth inning before a Josh Smith single, Wyatt Langford triple and Kyle Higashioka double would follow. The rest was history. That’s really been the theme of the last month of Rangers baseball.

Last week, when all of the Texas injuries first hit, utility man Josh Smith said the Rangers had nothing left to lose. They’re playing like it.

“They're playing loose, they're playing free,” Bochy said. “They’ve tried to prove that it's not one or two guys that will be the reason we get there. It’s going to take everybody. It's been somebody different, it seems like every night.

“The biggest thing I can take away from this is how confident they're playing the game. They're not getting down. They're fighting their way back in games. We've had some really good comebacks through this nice run that we have had. That's what it's going to take.”