The time of death on the 2025 Texas Rangers was the top of the fifth inning on Aug. 27. You wouldn’t have known it at the time — they were 11 runs into a 20-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels, which feels like an unusual time for hope to die.

But after hitting a home run in the fourth inning of that game, Corey Seager was removed in the top of the fifth. At the time, it seemed like manager Bruce Bochy was getting his best position player a little rest. What we found out later: Seager ended up at the hospital, eventually undergoing an appendectomy.

A team can endure the loss of a star. But Seager wasn’t just a star; he was the latest star to hit the injured list.

On Aug. 21, the Rangers lost two key players in one game: Marcus Semien fractured his third metatarsal and had a Lisfranc sprain in his left foot. Evan Carter had a right wrist fracture, having been hit by a pitch. The next day was the end of the road for Nathan Eovaldi, whose 1.73 ERA had him in American League Cy Young Award conversations. He had a rotator cuff strain and is unlikely to return unless Texas makes a deep playoff run.

Which, of course, felt extremely unlikely at the time.

Since Seager’s injury, however, the Rangers are 8-3. They’ve pulled to within 1 1/2 games of the Seattle Mariners for the final AL wild-card spot.

How?

They’re calling them the “Little Rascals,” a nickname bestowed by Rangers TV color commentator and former left fielder David Murphy on four players — Cody Freeman, Michael Helman, Alejandro Osuna and Dustin Harris. All four have spent more time in the minor leagues than in the big leagues this year.

“Game one of the Arizona series last week … that may have been the most fun game that I’ve ever done in the booth,” Murphy said pregame.

That game — somehow the Rangers’ sixth win in a row — came on Sept. 1. Losing 5-4 with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning, Freeman singled home Jake Burger to tie the game. In the top of the 10th inning, Osuna’s single drove home Helman and Ezequiel Duran to seal a 7-5 win.

Oh right.

Osuna was in the Sept. 1 game because it was also the game where Adolis García suffered a quad strain. Trainers tried to get him back to playing shape, but on Sept. 5, the team placed him on the 10-day IL, joining the rest of the stars. Called up to replace him on the roster was Harris, who had hit just .200 in 16 games at the big-league level this year and been designated for assignment on July 31, clearing waivers before being sent back to Triple A.

That night, Harris entered the game as a pinch-runner in the 10th inning, and, facing the division-leading Houston Astros, hit a walk-off single to pull the Rangers to within a half-game of a playoff spot.

Talking to players in the Rangers clubhouse, the word that keeps coming up is “energy.” But it’s not just as simple as a bunch of feral kids, excited to finally have a locker next to the big leaguers.

“We talk about the energy,” Bochy says. “But it doesn’t work unless you get the contribution. And that’s what’s happened with these kids, it has softened the blow of losing those veterans.”

And the contributions have continued. On Monday night, facing the league-best Milwaukee Brewers, it was Michael Helman — the 29-year-old rookie who resembles a young Mr. Rogers — whose grand slam accounted for nearly all the scoring in a 5-0 win. Even Helman took a moment to realize what had happened.

“Right after I made contact, I looked straight foul, because my helmet went over my face when I swung,” Helman says. “I thought I had hooked it. But then I heard the crowd start going nuts, and it’s like ‘Where’s the ball?” I saw it when I was at first base.”

By the time he rounded third base, he found himself asking, “Did that just happen?”

Or maybe the thought occurred earlier in the home run trot. It’s hard to say “because I kind of blacked out,” he concludes.

The slam was just his fourth career big-league home run. On Tuesday, he was at it again. After robbing Brice Turang of a two-run home run in the top of the fifth inning, he hit career homer No. 5 in the bottom half of the inning. The Rangers beat the Brewers (again) by a 5-4 score.

Talking to the four players, there is one whose energy is immediately infectious: Osuna, who is hitting just .184, but has become an emotional spark plug for the team.

“I’ve always played with a lot of energy because I love baseball,” Osuna says.

He speaks fast, the words passing over a smile that almost feels like he’s excited to be doing an interview.

“So I always try to play with passion. And when I don’t have good results, the best thing I can do is support my teammates,” he continues. “When my teammates do something good for the team, I’ve got a lot of energy, I’m very happy for them.”

Yes, as Bochy says, the production matters. But so does the energy. And it’s not just important for the “kids.”

“I think it’s been fun for (the veterans) to watch these young guys coming up, having fun, playing loose,” Bochy said. “Just playing with joy. If you look at them, they’re all smiling and having a fun time.”

Bochy pauses, and now the 70-year-old manager is also smiling.

“I think their enthusiasm has been contagious to the veterans, and they’re having a blast, too.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I started playing better when they got here,” says Joc Pederson. “They’re making the players around them better.”

It’s the sort of thing the Rangers have needed for the better part of two years. After winning the 2023 World Series, Texas ranked 18th in runs scored in 2024. This year, the pitching has performed at an elite level, but the offense has again stumbled, ranking 19th in runs scored.

It had been a long, slow death. And don’t get it mistaken, those injuries absolutely were the death of an already-sickly season.

This hasn’t been a recovery; it has been a full-fledged resurrection.