A Recap of the Texas Rangers Historic World Series Win
By Quentin Love
Rangers pitcher Josh Sborz is on the mound. If he throws a strike, the Texas Rangers will lift the World Series crown, and the Diamondbacks will burst into heartbreak. He throws the ball into the strike zone…The Texas Rangers erupted into celebration! Despite this historic win taking place in the Diamondbacks stadium, the Rangers fans in the stadium erupted into cheers. And for the first time in their history, they became world champions. Only two years after finishing last in their division with a 60-102 record, they had reached the top of the baseball world.
The Rangers ended the 2023 regular season in heartbreak. On the final day, they had lost the division with the same amount of points as their hated rivals, the current World Series champions, the Houston Astros. Despite this, the Rangers were determined to win the World Series. After several playoff wins against the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay, they were easily able to reach the ALCS championship against the Houston Astros.
The first game was a shutout. Rangers 2, Astros 0. With a Jordan Montgomery pitching masterclass, the Rangers had won game 1. Game 2; despite the intensity of the ninth inning, a 5-4 victory. And the Texas Rangers had just won 2 games in a row, in the Astros territory, surely they could win the next few games. But despite this early lead, the Astros showed what they could do away from home, with 8-5 and 10-3 defeats, the series was tied 2-2. In the next game, the Rangers took a 2-1 deficit in the 6th inning, and in the bottom of the 6th, it would be crucial for the Rangers to score, and that was exactly what Adolis Garcia did, hitting a home run, and getting the Texas rangers an additional 3 points to make it 4-2. But in the 9th inning, Jose Altuve hit a home run, and after a bit of controversy earlier when pitcher Bryan Abreu hit the Rangers' Adolis Garcia while pitching, the Astros took a 3-2 lead. The Rangers needed to win the next 2 games away, at the Astros stadium. They had to do the impossible, they couldn’t give up. And in the 9th inning of the game, with Astros fans booing him, Adolis Garcia hit a grand slam. And just like that, there was a winner-take-all game 7 of the ALCS.
The winner would go to the pinnacle of world baseball, the big crown, the dream for any team, and whoever wanted it more would emerge as ALCS champions, and would have a chance to win the World Series. And it was a bloodbath. Adolis Garcia hit 2 homers and a grand slam, along with home runs from Nathaniel Lowe and Corey Seager. Adolis Garcia was named ALCS MVP, and the Rangers lifted the ALCS trophy, only one challenge remained, the World Series.
The Arizona Diamondbacks and Corbin Carroll were there for them to face. Despite them not having the best regular season they were able to beat a lot of the best teams in the MLB on their way to the final such as the shock win against the Phillies in the NLCS championship. The Rangers started the series in one of the best games in World Series history. The Diamondbacks were ahead 5-3 in the 9th inning. The Rangers, just as it looked like they would lose game one, witnessed a 2 run home run from Corey Seager. And in the bottom of the 11th, Adolis Garcia hit a walk-off home run to win the game. In game 2 the Diamondbacks would respond with a 9-1 win to tie the series 1-1. The next game would end in a 3-1 victory for the Rangers, but in that game, Adolis Garcia got injured. One of their best players, the hero in the ALCS, had gotten injured for the rest of the series. But the Rangers moved on, and they won game 4 11-7, despite the Diamondbacks scoring 7 in the last inning of the game. In game 5 of the World Series, the stage was set. This was the game for the Rangers to win the World Series. Mitch Garver, in the top of the 7th, would hit an RBI single for the Rangers. Then, with Jonah Heim hitting a single and allowing two other runners to score, and Semiens' two-run home run, the Rangers would win the World Series.
The Texas Rangers’ World Series run is considered to be one of the best in MLB history along with their amazing squad with players like Adolis Garcia, who broke the all-time RBI record in the playoffs, along with being the 2023 ALCS MVP Cory Seager, who became one of the only people to win World Series MVP twice. Alongside several great players such as Josh Sborz, Jordan Montgomery, Max Scherzer, Evan Carter, and several others. This team, and this World Series, were truly something to watch, but what do our very own students think about this historic win? Most opinions are quite negative. Jonah Dziky from 604 claims it’s “Dumb”, while Eric Wu from 602 says it’s “Overrated,”
The 2023 MLB season was a huge success for the Texas Rangers, and with spring training in February and the 2024 season starting in late March, the Rangers will hope to replicate this success.