Texas Rangers World Series Champs

Texas Rangers Win First World Series ; Seager MVP

By David A. Avila

The Texas Rangers are the World Series champions. Finally.

Powered by Corey Seager, the Most Valuable Player of the series, the Rangers defeated Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 to clinch their very first World Series in franchise history.

In a battle between Wild Card teams it was the Rangers who won 90 games this season who won 11 road consecutive road games throughout the post season that emerged victorious.

The D-Backs, won a mere 84 games during the regular season but caught a hot streak that eventually ended against the powerful Rangers who hit homers in every game.

In the final game, Zac Gallen pitched no-hit baseball for 6 1/3 innings but saw Seager , of course, squib a ball through the infield for a hit. Two more Rangers got hits and scored the first run on Wednesday.

Gallen gave his team a much-needed strong performance but his teammates were unable to score a run against Ranger pitcher Nathan Eovaldi. Though Arizona put runners on base early against the ace pitcher, they couldn’t muster a run.

Later, Ranger hitter Marcus Semien delivered a knockout blow with a two-run homer to make the score 5-0. Arizona just couldn’t regain their post season magic and hot streak that led to series wins over the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. All had much better records during the regular season but hot streaks come when they come. For the D-Backs the hotness wore off.

On the other side of the coin, the Rangers had succeeded in winning on the road and beat Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Houston to get to the World Series. The won for the first time in their history that dates back to 1961 when they were established as the second version of the Washington Senators. In 1972, they moved to Texas and became the Rangers.

This was their third attempt at winning the World Series and they won behind several former Dodgers including Seager who won World Series MVP while a Dodger in 2020. It was the second time he captured the award and proved he is one of the best post season players of all time.

Seager joins Reggie Jackson as a two-time World Series MVP. Another two-time World Series MVP was Dodger pitcher Sandy Koufax. Seager also becomes the first and only player to win World Series MVP in both leagues.

Seager, Eovaldi and Max Scherzer are all former Dodgers and instrumental in leading the Rangers to victory.

Seager was signed by Texas prior to 2022 for a hefty sum of $325 million. During this World Series he hit .318 with 6 RBIs, 5 homers and a 1.133 OPS. He delivered throughout the post season. It was one of the reasons he was signed along with Marcus Semien in 2021 to establish a foundation that led Texas to this championship.

Also added was manager Bruce Bochy who became a world champion skipper for the fourth time. Three times with San Francisco and once with Texas.

For Arizona it was their second time in the World Series. They captured their first championship in 2001 against the New York Yankees and became the quickest franchise to win a World Series. They will have to wait at least another year.

Though the D-Backs were a Wild Card they were picked by this publication to compete at a high level. It was no surprise to us.