Rangers Win 1st World Series vs. D-Backs, Hyped by MLB Fans as ‘Team of Destiny’

The Texas Rangers have won their first-ever World Series after defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 in Game 5 of the Fall Classic on Wednesday to earn a 4-1 series victory.

Both teams were held scoreless through six innings, with Texas going without a hit during that span against D-backs starter Zac Gallen. Nathan Eovaldi bent but never broke as he routinely got out of tough jams to throw six shutout innings and ultimately earn the win.

However, Texas got on the board in the seventh after Rangers designated hitter Mitch Garver’s RBI single scored Corey Seager.

Texas held onto that 1-0 lead into the ninth before breaking it open with four runs. Jonah Heim’s single to center field scored two after the ball got by outfielder Alek Thomas on an error.

Marcus Semien later drove Heim home with a game-sealing two-run homer.

Josh Sborz shut the door in the ninth, and with that, the Rangers hoisted their first World Series trophy since entering Major League Baseball as the Washington Senators in 1961.

Texas didn’t even make the playoffs until 1996 and endured significant postseason heartbreak in 2011 after coming just one out away from defeating the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Series.

But the Rangers are on top of the baseball world now after playoff run that included sweeps of the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles, a hard-fought seven-game ALCS win over the Houston Astros and an emphatic World Series victory over the upstart Diamondbacks in five. Fans are calling them a “team of destiny” following a fantastic postseason.

Texas endured a tough road just to get to this point.

Their best hitter, Seager, missed 43 games largely due to thumb and hamstring injuries.

Their best pitcher, Jacob deGrom, started just six games before suffering a torn UCL in his right elbow that forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery.

Texas also started hot but was just three games over .500 after May. The Rangers had to fight just to make the playoffs but found themselves two-and-a-half games up with just four to go. Losing three-out-of-four in Seattle led to Texas losing its AL West lead by tiebreaker to Houston, meaning the Rangers had to get to the World Series the hard way through the wild card.

But Texas then cruised through the first two rounds and took down the defending World Series champions in Houston before winning its first AL pennant in 12 years.

In the World Series, the Rangers lost the hottest hitter in baseball, right fielder Adolis García, due to a strained oblique after Game 3. Star pitcher and midseason acquisition Max Scherzer was lost for the series as well due to back spasms that forced him to depart Game 3 after three innings.

Despite everything, Texas bore down and beat Arizona 11-7 in Game 4 before shutting the D-backs out in Game 5.

Simply put, this was a well-deserved World Series victory for a resilient team. The Rangers got great performances from Seager, the World Series MVP, and a host of others in the batting order, the starting rotation and the bullpen for a great team win.

Manager Bruce Bochy also deserves credit after winning his fourth World Series title following three victories in San Francisco (2010, 2012, 2014). In addition, reliever Will Smith became the first-ever player to win World Series in three straight years with three different teams (Atlanta Braves, Astros, Rangers).

And with that, the 2023 baseball season is over. Congratulations are in order for a great Rangers team well-positioned to be perennial playoff contenders for the foreseeable future. Twenty-nine other teams now find themselves chasing Texas, and they’ll get a chance to get to work in that regard soon enough as hot stove season gets going in earnest.