The Texas Rangers won their first World Series (WS) championship this past week, defeating the Cinderella-story Arizona Diamondbacks in five games.
Perhaps the most impressive feat of this postseason run was the fact that the Rangers didn’t lose a single game on the road; they were 2-4 in home games and 11-0 on the road. This Rangers’ offense was unstoppable at its peaks, and good pitching in the home stretch was the icing on the cake.
Shortstop Corey Seager is that dude. He took home World Series MVP for the second time in his career.
This Rangers team was always based around its stellar offense. Four of the Rangers’ nine everyday starters hit above .300 in the postseason, with the two most notable hitters being Seager and outfielder Adolis García.
García was definitely the MVP of the postseason. He looked like the best hitter on the planet until his injury in the WS. He led the postseason in home runs, RBIs (he had 22, the next closest had 15) and was third in hits, which he could’ve led in if not for having to miss the last two games.
The most electrifying game of the series was definitely Game 1. Texas grabbed an early 2-0 lead, then the Dbacks scored three in the third inning, which the Rangers followed by adding a run in the bottom half to tie the game.
A Tommy Pham solo shot and Ketel Marte’s double put the Snakes up 5-3, which would remain the score until the ninth inning, with Dbacks’ pitcher Paul Sewald coming in to slam the door. Leody Taveras walked to start the inning. Marcus Semien struck out, making it one out with Taveras still on first, and Seager coming up to the plate. Seager hit a moon shot to tie the game, yelling at his dugout and showing fierce emotion, something we rarely see from the stoic demeanor Seager usually has.
García then walked it off in the 11th inning on a solo bomb, making the score 6-5. Seager and García, the two players this lineup revolved around, came up huge when they needed to. Game one set the tone for the series, and it felt like a must-win for Arizona despite only being the first game of the series.
Veteran pitching came up clutch for the Rangers as well. They saw a combined six scoreless innings out of Max Scherzer and Jon Gray in Game three and six scoreless out of Nathan Eovaldi in Game five. Even when the bullpen let them down a bit in Game four, the offense showed up in a massive way, putting up 11 runs. Semien was the X factor in that game, as he drove in five.
This WS win was very deserved by the Rangers; they played their butts off all postseason and came up big when they needed to. Those big hits are what win you games. As a Dodgers fan, I would have loved nothing more than to see a few clutch hits in the postseason from my boys in blue. If Freddie Freeman or Mookie Betts could have had just a couple of hits at the right time, it could’ve completely changed the course of their series.
Hot teams win the playoffs, and the Rangers got hot at the best time possible. It’s scary to imagine what this team could’ve done with a healthy Jacob deGrom. If the front office is smart, I see no reason as to why this team won’t be able to sustain success. Seager, Semien, deGrom and Eovaldi are all under contract until at least 2026, and they’re surrounded by young talent — guys like García, Jonah Heim and Josh Jung — that can be kept through the arbitration process. Something tells me this Rangers team got a taste of success and will remain relentless in the coming years.
Luke Mallery