World Series Recap

In October 2022, Bruce Bochy was a retired manager with three World Series rings to his name. Fast forward to November 2023, Bochy is in Phoenix waving around the Commissioner’s Trophy after the Texas Rangers won the World Series and his 4th ring.

Just last season, the Rangers finished 4th in the AL West and under .500 at 68-94. Now, the Rangers get to parade around Arlington with their first World Series title in franchise history.

Rangers Steal Game 1

Game 1 in Arlington was the start of their path to winning the title. Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi didn’t have his best outing, giving up five earned runs while only pitching 4.2 innings. The Arizona Diamondbacks had Zac Gallen on the bump, he went five innings and had three earned runs.

In the 5th, the Diamondbacks took a 5-3 lead on a Ketel Marte RBI double. All was going Arizona’s way until the 9th when Corey Seager hit a game-tying home run off of closer Paul Sewald.

With the game going into extras, slugger Adolis García sent home Rangers’ fans happy after hitting a walk-off home run, winning Game 1, 6-5.

Arizona Ties the Series Up

After a devastating blown save, Arizona looked to even the series before going back to Phoenix; and they did exactly that, winning 9-1.

Jordan Montgomery started for the Rangers, he went six innings, gave up four earned runs and took the loss. The Snakes’ bats came out to play, especially from their younger players like Corbin Carroll who went 2-5 with two RBI and Gabriel Moreno who went 1-4 with a home run.

For the Diamondbacks, Merrill Kelly pitched brilliantly. Kelly went seven innings with nine strikeouts and gave up one run on three hits paving the way for the D-Backs to redeem themselves.

Texas Wins Three Straight on the Road to Take the World Series

With the series going back to Phoenix, it was time for Texas to continue their dominance in winning postseason games on the road. Before the World Series, the Rangers had gone 8-0 on the road in the previous series.

Brandon Pfaadt was back on the bump for the D-Backs and looked to continue his dominance from the NLCS. However, Pfaadt gave up three earned runs in 5.1 innings to the Rangers’ two veterans, Seager and Marcus Semien.

Seager mashed his second homer of the series and Semien drove in an RBI single. The Rangers won 3-1 in Game 3 and led the series.

With no set starter for Game 4, Diamondbacks’ manager Torey Lovullo decided to have a bullpen game, which backfired as they gave up 11 runs.

Semien went 2-5 and drove in five RBI, Seager hit his third homer of the series and Travis Jankowski, who was in to replace García, went 2-4 and had two RBI.

Despite being down 11-1 by the eighth, Arizona’s offense decided to make the game interesting.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. tried to bring the D-Backs back into it after he hit a 3-run homer in the 8th, making the score 11-5. In the 9th, Moreno drove in two more runs to make it 11-7.

A valiant comeback effort by the Diamondbacks was too little too late as they lost 11-7 and the Rangers had a 3-1 lead in the series.

With one game to the title, Bochy looked to Eovaldi to have a dominant outing as Gallen was back on the mound for the Diamondbacks.

Gallen was pitching a no-hitter in a tie game through six innings, which was lost after a single by Seager, followed by two more hits. Mitch Garver drove in the first run of the game to make it 1-0 Rangers.

Eovaldi finished his night going six innings, zero earned runs with five strikeouts. The Rangers tacked on four more runs, insured by a two-run homer from Semien in the ninth to secure their first World Series title in franchise history.

Corey Seager won the World Series MVP, he batted .286 with a 1.137 OPS and three home runs, making him the fourth player to win the award twice.

Caitlyn Brooks is a first-year majoring in Digital and Print Journalism. Contact her at crb6283@psu.edu.