Turn a walk into an inside-the-park HR? ABS helped 'Full Count Carter' in a big way

ARLINGTON -- Evan Carter thought he drew a walk.

In the third inning of Thursday night’s 6-1 win over the Pirates, Carter -- who has been known as Full Count Carter since his Minor League days -- watched what he thought was ball four pass him before catcher Joey Bart successfully initiated an ABS challenge and got the ball overturned to a strike.

The count was then 3-1. It came to a full count after Carter swung through a fastball down and away from Pittsburgh’s Bubba Chandler.

On the full-count offering, Carter connected with a fastball over the heart of the plate, sending it 385 feet toward the wall of the Rangers' bullpen in right-center field. It ricocheted off right fielder Ryan O’Hearn’s glove before bouncing off the wall into no-man’s land in center field, where Oneil Cruz tracked it down.

Carter glided around the bases, at first leisurely before finally turning on the jets at a top speed of 28.6 feet/per second, according to Statcast, somewhere between second and third base.

“There were a lot of emotions -- maybe not emotions, but off the bat, I thought it was out [for a homer] for a second,” Carter recalled. “Then I was like, ‘Oh crap, he's gonna catch it.’ And then I slowed down for the double, and then I'm cruising for a triple. Then [third-base coach Corey] Ragsdale kept waving me, and I'm like, ‘Oh crap, I can keep going.’ So I don't really know. I pulled up and stopped it, like, three times, I feel like. But it was good. It was fun.”

He went from home-to-home in 15.28 seconds as anticipation grew within Globe Life Field, before diving headfirst into home plate for an inside-the-park home run that gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead. It marked the third career full-count home run for Full Count Carter (including postseason).

It was Carter’s first career inside-the-park home run and the first by a Ranger since Wyatt Langford tallied his first Major League home run in dramatic fashion on April 28, 2024.

Carter’s homer changed the game and swung all the momentum in the Rangers’ favor as they eventually cruised to close out a series win.

He said his favorite part of the night was watching third baseman Josh Jung -- who singled right before his inside-the-parker -- and how fired up he was as they ran together back to the dugout.

“That's an exciting moment,” Carter said. “I think it makes it even better when your teammates are excited for you as well. You want that from your teammates. I want to give that back to my teammates whenever something cool happens to them. It's a great chemistry thing to have when everybody's excited for each other. That's a really cool scene.”

Regarding ABS, this felt like positive karma for Carter, who attempted to challenge a called strike three in a full count in Wednesday night’s loss, but was disallowed because the umpire ruled he took too long. It turned a walk into a strikeout.

The baseball gods repaid him in Thursday.

“The ABS, it's just so new,” said manager Skip Schumaker. “It got him last night and didn't get him tonight, so that's the good news. But he just takes such good at-bats, especially, against right-handers. It's such a nice bat to have in the middle of the order, to have that type of speed/power combination. He's going to be fun to watch, not only this year, but throughout his career. He's just a very talented player.”

It was the series of a lifetime for Carter, who also robbed a home run in the Rangers’ series-opening win on Tuesday night.

The 23-year-old has been seen as the Rangers' center fielder of the future since breaking onto the scene in 2023. But injuries have kept him from reaching his fullest potential the last two seasons.

This very well could be the second coming of the Little Savior.

“Evan is a dynamic player,” Schumaker said. “He gets as good a jump as anybody in center field. He can steal bases. He's still learning the game and what he can do. It’s so much fun to think about, because he's just now coming into his own. He's still so young. He hasn't gotten 500 at-bats in the Major Leagues in one season.

“To think about what that could look like throughout the next six months is exciting. He's an exciting player, and such a good kid, hard worker. He's keeping his body healthy and doing everything he can postgame and pregame. He's in a really good spot.”