The Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks have made it to the World Series. The Texas Rangers have never won a World Series and have only made it to two in 2010 and 2011, while the Arizona Diamondbacks have made it to the World Series twice and became victorious in the 2001 World Series, with Luis Gonzalez hitting a walk-off single in game 7.
The Rangers beat the defending Champion Houston Astros in 7 games of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) after surprising everyone by sweeping the #1 seed Baltimore Orioles in The American League Division Series (ALDS). The Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies in 7 National League Championship Series (NLCS) games after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series (NLDS).
A notable player in the postseason for the Diamondbacks is Ketel Marte, who had a hit in his last 18 consecutive playoff games, with 4 coming from 2017 and the other 14 coming from this year. Marte currently has a .333 batting average and a .910 OPS (On-base plus slugging, which shows the overall offensive performance of a player), both of which are the top numbers for the Diamondbacks. Texas Ranger Adolis Garcia has had a historic postseason with a .339 batting average and an OPS of 1.153. Adolis Garcia hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the 11th inning in Game 1 of the World Series.
GAME #1 Rangers
Game one of the World Series was a thriller. Home runs, strikeouts, even a walk-off game-winner. It was a close game going into the ninth, Diamondbacks 5 Rangers 3. Corey Seager hit a game-tying home run to send the game to extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th inning, Adolis Garcia hit a game-winning home run to give him 3 hits, 2 RBIs (Runs batted in), and 1 home run. The Rangers’ starting pitcher, Nathan Eovaldi, had a great night with 8 strikeouts in 4.2 innings. The Diamondbacks’ starting pitcher, Zac Gallen, had 5 strikeouts in 5 innings.
GAME #2 Diamondbacks
The Rangers had a pretty mediocre night, only scoring 1 run from Mitch Garver in the fifth inning. The Diamondbacks had a very good night, scoring nine runs, with 3 people having 2 RBIs. Merrill Kelly, the Diamondbacks’ pitcher, had 9 strikeouts in 7 innings, and Jordan Montgomery had 0 strikeouts in 5 innings. Not great.
GAME #3 Rangers
Game #3 lacked major action, with the Rangers winning 3-1. The Rangers only had 5 hits, and the Diamondbacks had 6, which is quite low for a team. Max Scherzer and Adolis Garcia, two of the best players on the Rangers, both got injured in this game, which is not going to be good for the Rangers.
Game #4 Rangers
This might have been the most exciting game of the series, with the ending score being 11-7 Rangers. Each team had over 11 hits, over 7 runs, and 4 total home runs. The pitching was not very good, with a total of 15 strikeouts. Without Adolis Garcia and Max Scherzer, the Rangers still delivered and got the win.
Game #5 Rangers
The Rangers won the World Series! Zac Gallen for the Diamondbacks had a no-hitter through the 6th inning, and then Corey Seager got the first hit in the seventh. Corbin Carroll committed a game-changing error in the top of the ninth to give the Rangers 2 extra runs to make it 3-0, and then Marcus Semien hit a two-run home run for the last score of the game. Josh Sborz struck out Ketel Marte on a 2-2 count to win the World Series.
