The last time both series of Championship Series they reached game seven it was in 2020, but it has never happened that both away teams have won the last two games of the series. To go back to the last World Series that did not see the participation of either the Houston Astros or the Los Angeles Dodgers, we need to go back to 2016, when the curse of Billy Goat ended and the first triumph of the Chicago Cubs after 108 years of starvation.
After ten days of exciting and spectacular baseball, the field decreed its response: to compete in the World Series 2023 they will be Texas Rangers
e Arizona Diamondbacks.
Having already eliminated the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles, the Texas Rangers they dethroned the Houston
Astros in game seven of the Texas derby, winning 11-4 thanks to an extraordinary performance by Adolis Garciathen crowned MVP from the ALCS with a roster of 10-28, 15 home runs and 5 home runs, all hit in the last four games of the series. The Texas Rangers have been a great story this postseason and especially in the regular season, and now they return to the World Series for the first time after the 2010-2011 two-year period when they were defeated first by the San Francisco Giants, then by the Saint Louis Cardinals. The Arlington franchise, which has never won the World Series since the period in which it played in Washington and bore the nickname Senators, can boast a rings specialist at the helm: Bruce Bochy. Returning to coaching after three years of retirement and a period with the FFBS (Fédération Française de Baseball et Softball) as manager of the French national baseball team, the French-American manager remained immaculate in seven games: it means that in his career no has ever lost the very last game of the series. In addition to three World Series with the San Francisco Giants (2010, 2012, 2014), Bochy became the third manager to reach the World Series with three different teams (Padres, Giants and Rangers) but only the first to win the League Championship Series (born in 1969) with three franchises. The Fall Classic which will start on the night between Friday and Saturday 28 October will therefore be his fifth on the bench and his opportunity to tie Joe Torre and Walter Alston, stuck at four manager rings, behind only Connie Mack (5) and Casey Stengel and Joe McCarthy (7).
The manager of the Texas Rangers can count on a team in form: in addition to the MVP of the ALCS, the Rangers’ attack relies on the interior Corey Seager (16 career playoff home runs), Nathanael Lowe, Mitch Garver and on the receiver Jonah
Heimalways ready in times of need, while the rookie Evan
Carter it is now a guarantee of arrivals at base e Josh Jung it is unsurpassed in the third cushion. Nathan Eovaldi (4-0) e Jordan Montgomery
(3-0) are the main pillars of a rotation that he has rediscovered Max
Scherzer (who became one of the two players capable of playing the postseason with five different teams in this series), although still far from his standards, and Jon Gray ready to eat footage together with Dane Dunning, Martin Perez e Andrew Heaney. The bullpen is kept on level by the closer Jose Leclerc (two saves against the Astros and only one empty run, in game five) and by the reliable setup man Josh Sborzmentre “The Cuban
Missile” Aroldis Chapman he is the only weak link in the department. The Texans enter the last series of the season on the strength of four away successes in the Championship Series. It happened only once: in the 2019 World Series won by the Washington Nationals against the Houston Astros. A few weeks later the stolen signals scandal would explode and overwhelm the Houston franchise, forcing it to revolutionize the front office and technical leadership, entrusted to veteran and “old school” manager Dusty Baker who is now about to leave after four seasons and three division titles , two pennants and a World Series.
Between June 13th and August 11th no one would have bet on the chances of the Arizona Diamondbacks to reach the postseason goal. In that span, the Snakes had won just sixteen of fifty games, lost nine consecutive games since August 1, and, after falling below par in the standings (.500) and even slipping to third place in the division behind the San Francisco Giants, they lost ground also with regards to the wild card race, which was then achieved third place at the end of the season despite four consecutive defeats. Today Torey Lovullo’s team was able to snatch away the Philadelphia
Phillies the title of National League champions won last year and they did it right in the Phillies’ fort, the very noisy Citizens Bank Park, thanks to two away victories in game six and game seven which arrived with the results of 5-1 and 4-2 . In the two key games, the pitching mound was decisive. The departures Merrill Kelly e Brandon Pfaadt they put together nine innings with 15 strikeouts and just 3 runs conceded; the bullpen, with the indefatigables Ryan Thompson, Andrew Saalfrank, Kevin Ginkel ed it closer Paul Sewald (six saves this postseason), they took care of the rest, raising an impassable wall for the powerful bats of the Philadelphia Phillies (24 hit home runs in the 2023 postseason) who produced just four hits in nine innings and earned two bases on balls but scored no runs. In these last two games the Diamondbacks have rediscovered the element that most distinguished their season: running the bases. During the regular season the Arizona Diamondbacks were able to steal better (166 stolen bases on 192 attempts) e Corbin Carrolltheir star player and leading candidate for the National League rookie award, finished his season third in stolen bases (54) behind only Esteury Ruiz (67, first in the American League) and Ronald Acuña Jr (73). In the first five games, however, perhaps intimidated by the opposing receiver Realmute
(24 caught stealing this year), the Dbacks have stolen just one base while Corbin Carroll, just two hits and one base on balls in the first five games, has never looked for it in the few occasions in which he managed to step up basic. Down 3-2 in the series, the Arizona Diamondbacks decided to start playing their way again and in the two games they totaled eight stolen bases, four per game (in a Game 7 of the playoffs this hadn’t happened since the 1909 World Series between Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Tigers). Corbin Carroll was also revitalized, responding to the 3-26 of the first six games with a game seven of three hits, two stolen bases, two home runs and two runs batted in, thus proving decisive in his team’s feat. No player has batted like this in an MLB postseason Game Seven. The Diamondbacks also have another hero: Marte Kettlea thirty-year-old Dominican second baseman capable of winning the award MVP of the series, batting validly in all twelve games of this postseason and in all the last sixteen he played in his career. Only Derek Jeter, Manny
Ramirez e Hank Bauer they did better, beating valid for seventeen consecutive games. Marte was instrumental on defense and batted against the Phillies 12-31 with four doubles, a triple and three runs batted in. His walk-off in game three (won 2-1) started the comeback of the Dbacks, defeated in the first two games in Philadelphia.
In the first five games the Phillies batted more (40 hits against 34) and scored more (27-12) thanks essentially to the swings of Bryce Harper, Kyle
Schwarber, J. T. Realmuto, Trea Turner, Bryson Stott e
Alec Bohm, always present and decisive. The six of them hit 39 of 51 hits in seven games, producing a total of seven doubles, eleven home runs (five by Schwarber alone) and twenty-four of the thirty runs scored by Rob Thomson’s entire team. Aside from Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott, the only two Phillies to produce runs in the Game Seven loss, everyone else disappeared in the big games. The performance above all is striking Nick Castellanos who, as a star in the wild card series against the Marlins and in the Division Series against the Braves, was no longer seen after the home run against Zac Gallen in his first at-bat of game one, finishing the rest of the series with an 0-23 mark and 11 strikeouts.
An unprecedented series will therefore begin on the Italian night between Thursday and Friday, in Arlington, Texas. Is Rangers
That Diamondbacks they finished in second place in their respective divisions, however eliminating the division winners in the play-offs. If the Rangers took revenge on the Astros in the series that delivers the league title, the Diamondbacks did well to sweep their opponents in the divisional series in three games. For the third time since 2002 the two contenders for the Commissioner’s Trophy have left the Wild Card. In 2002 the Fall Classic saw the Los Angeles Angels prevail over Barry Bonds’ San Francisco Giants coached by Dusty Baker; in 2014 the San Francisco Giants of Bruce Bochy and the legendary Madison Bumgarner (he started 2023 with the Dbacks but was released after just four starts) managed to prevail over the Kansas City Royals. Bochy can now do an encore and poker but he cannot afford to underestimate the Diamondbacks. Nobody had high expectations for them during the regular season, even less in the playoff games against the Brewers, Dodgers and Phillies, yet they are still standing and now dream of winning the second World Series of their young history.
Luca Giangrande
The matches of World Series MLB are broadcast live on TV channels Sky Sport and streaming on the platform NOW. Below are the appointments:
Saturday 28 October ore 1.30 (first launch at 2.03am) race one Texas Rangers – Arizona Diamondbacks live on
Sky Sports One e Sky Sport Max
Sunday 29 October ore 2 (first launch 2.03 am) game two Texas Rangers – Arizona Diamondbacks live on
Sky Sports One e Sky Sport Max
Tuesday 31 October ore 1 (first launch 1.03 am) game three Arizona Diamondbacks – Texas Rangers live on
Sky Sport Max
Wednesday 1st November ore 1 (first launch 1.03 am) game four Arizona Diamondbacks – Texas Rangers live on Sky Sport Max
*Thursday 2 November ore 1 (first launch 1.03 am) game five Arizona Diamondbacks – Texas Rangers live on Sky Sport Max
*Saturday 4 November ore 1 (first launch 1.03 am) game six Texas Rangers – Arizona Diamondbacks live on
Sky Sport Max
*Sunday 5 November ore 1 (first launch 1.03am) game seven Texas Rangers – Arizona Diamondbacks live on Sky Sport Max
*= if necessary
Photo: A swing by Adolis Garcia (Texas Rangers) in Game 7 of the ALCS against the Houston Astros. Credit: MLB
2023-10-26 08:50:12
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