What a way to cap off the World Series. The Texas Rangers have won the first World Series title in the franchise’s history as they smashed the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 in Game 5 to win the series 4-1!
The reign of Texas continues…just in the form of the Rangers.
After 62 years of broken hearts, broken dreams, and postseason failure, the Texas Rangers have FINALLY won a World Series title as they hammered the Arizona Diamond backs 5-0 in Game 5 to cap off a decisive 4-1 series victory. And, even though I think this was a rather fluky win, I have nothing but respect and admiration for the Rangers.
Alright, as I said, I really don’t want to take away from the Rangers World Series win as they were obviously the most deserving team to win the title this season, but this was a crazy World Series matchup to begin win. Not only did both teams make the playoffs as Wild Card teams and finish 2nd in their division, but they both also were the 2nd lowest seeds in their, respective, conferences.
The Rangers finished the regular season 90-72 and just narrowly squeaked into the playoffs after losing out the AL West division title battle to their Texas rivals Houston Astros (which they would avenge a few weeks later), while the Diamondbacks narrowly avoided a resurgent Padres team to finish a distant 2nd in the NL West behind the LA Dodgers and make the playoffs with just an 84-78 record.
Since the turn of the millennium, only the 2000 New York Yankees (87-74), the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals (83-78), the 2014 San Francisco Giants (88-74), and the 2021 Atlanta Braves (88-74) won the World Series with less wins than this Rangers team, while only the 2006 Cardinals are the only team to make the World Series with 84 or less wins as this Diamondbacks side in the same timeframe. Simply put, this was the World Series battle of the underdogs…and the Rangers showed they were the fiercest competitor left standing.
Aside from that dreadful 9-1 hammering in Game 2 that saw Merrill Kelly post 9 strikeouts and Tommy Pham go crazy with 4 hits on 5 at bats for the Diamondbacks, the Rangers looked in complete control throughout this series. Obviously, that was to be expected as the Rangers had the better pitching, better hitters, better star hitters, better depth, and better managing at all times, yet it takes a great team to be able to use all of these advantages in these high-pressure games to the extent the Rangers were able to dominate.
Correy Seager, Marcus Siemen, Josh Jung, Evan Carter, and Adolis Garcia were amazing at the plate with them being largely responsible for the Rangers racking up 38 hits, 26 runs, 24 RBIs, and 8 home runs across the five games, while Nathan Evoladi, Max Scherzer, and Andrew Heaney all played very well from their starting positions on the mound.
It’s true that the Diamondbacks finished the series with more hits than the Rangers (and that’s mainly due to them getting 16 hit off Martin Perez and Jordan Montgomery in Game 2) and similar total RBIs (Rangers: 24; Diamondbacks: 22), but they couldn’t hit evenly across the five games. And the Rangers could.
To be honest, that’s really the biggest difference between the two sides. When the Diamondbacks were able to score and hit in bunches, they generally played really well with their 9-1 Game 2 win and 6-5 Game 1 loss; however, when the game was close or Texas got off to an early lead, Arizona tended to crumble and wilt with their 3-1 Game 3 loss, 11-7 Game 4 loss (Rangers went up 10-0 after 3 innings in that game), and then their dreadful 5-0 shutout loss in the series-clinching Game 5 defeat.
So, at the end of the day, the Texas Rangers were the more than deserving World Series champions, and I congratulate them for it. They were able to beat back the 99-63 Tampa Bay Rays, the 100+ win and AL East champion Baltimore Orioles, and then the reigning World Series champions, the AL West winners, and their archrivals Houston Astros to just reach the World Series.
Then, when they faced off against the Diamondbacks, they kept their composure, turned their strengths into dominating advantages, and hit consistently across ALL the games in the series. And that’s why they were able to avenge their heartbreaking, back-to-back World Series defeats in 2010 and 2011 to finally win the first championship in their franchises’ history.
I also want to shout out the Diamondbacks for completing an equally grueling course through the NL to reach the World Series, but they just came up short in the end when the moments REALLY mattered.
Nevertheless, congratulations, Texas Rangers, you guys have more than earned this victory!
Images Source: Featured Image:
