With Texas’ win, the Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, and Tampa Bay Rays are the only five active Major League Baseball teams without a World Series championship. The Mariners are the only one of those to have never made it to the World Series.
After defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 to win the best-of-seven series 4-1, the Texas Rangers have won the World Series for the first time in their 62-year history.
Up until Mitch Garver brought home Corey Seager in the seventh inning, neither team scored in Phoenix.
After a fielding error, Jonah Heim’s base single scored two runs for the Rangers, giving them some breathing room. Marcus Semien’s two-run home run then made it official that the celebrations could start.
Thanks to a good start by starting pitcher Zac Gallen, who threw six scoreless innings until loading the bases in the seventh and allowing Garver to break the tie, the Diamondbacks were in the game for a large portion of it.
However, in game five, the hosts left 11 runners on base, which allowed Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi to win after shutting out the D-backs for six innings.
Josh Sborz, a reliever, recorded the final out by striking out Ketel Marte.
The most valuable player in the World Series was shortstop Corey Seager, who again took home the trophy with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.
Bochy’s Rangers dominate the highway
A Rangers franchise, which debuted in 1961 as the Washington Senators, has been long overdue.
This was, confusingly, the third major league team to use the Senators name. The first ended in 1899, the second, which is now the Minnesota Twins, departed Washington in 1960, and the third, which was created in 1961 as an expansion team, remained in the nation’s capital for 11 years before relocating to Arlington, Texas in 1972.
In 2010, the San Francisco Giants, led by Bruce Bochy, who is currently in command of the Rangers dugout, defeated them in their first World Series. Recalling that he was the first manager in history to win four World Series titles, he proudly emerged from retirement a year ago in response to a summons from Texas.
The Rangers, who had led the American League West division for much of the season, have not had an easy playoffs. The Rangers were forced to play in the wildcard round after losing to the Houston Astros, their state rivals, on the last day of the 162-game regular season.
Texas was untouchable away from Arlington after losing 41 of their 81 road games during the regular season. They swept the top-seeded Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays before emerging victorious in an odd AL Championship series against the Astros in which the away side won all seven games.
Their playoff record is now an incredible 11 straight away wins after three straight World Series victories in Arizona.
Bochy informed his players in the locker room, “You guys just wrote history,” as the champagne corks were popped.
