The first pitch of the Major League Baseball season was thrown at 1:10 in the afternoon on March 30th. 211 days later, this Friday night, the first pitch of the World Series will be thrown, beginning a best-of-seven series to decide a champion.
These playoffs have provided a month filled with surprises and we are left with a rather intriguing World Series matchup that few suspected we’d see.
The Tale of the Tape
From the American league, the Texas Rangers have been on a month-long hot streak that few saw coming. As a fifth seed they knocked off the fourth seeded Rays in round one, the top seeded Orioles in round two and finally won a thrilling seven game series against the dreaded Houston Astros, a remarkable series in which the home teams went 0-7. This was just the second time in baseball history that home teams have lost every game of a seven game series, with the other occurrence coming in 2019 when the Washington Nationals beat those same Astros in the World Series. Important to note that the Rangers were not favored to beat any of those teams, making this run they’ve been on even more magical.
The Rangers feature a formidable lineup, boasting the league’s second best offense in the regular season and also ranked second in the league in fielding and defense. Offensive stars such as shortstop Corey Seager, right fielder Adolis Garcia and rookie left fielder Evan Carter were key contributors this postseason, which made the difference in the ALCS (American League Championship Series) against Houston. If the Rangers want to bring home the franchise’s first ever championship, they’ll need significant production from those three as well as the rest of that fearsome batting order.
They will also need stout pitching performances from their trio of elite starting pitchers, Jordan Montgomery, Nathan Eovaldi and Max Scherzer. Montgomery and Eovaldi have been unbeatable this postseason and the Rangers are 8-0 in the playoffs in games that those two have started. Scherzer however, still recovering from a shoulder injury suffered earlier in the season, is still working his way back to peak form. But at his best, he’s one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. For the Rangers to be successful, they’ll need great games from those three in order to preferably keep the ball away from their bullpen. The back end is anchored by right handers Jose Leclerc and Josh Sborz, plus left hander Aroldis Chapman. The one area you can point to as a liability for this team is that bullpen, it becomes a dangerous venture when the game is put into their hands. But, as unpredictable as these playoffs have been, nobody would be surprised to see them hoisting the trophy in a week or so.
If you’d have told me two seasons ago when the Arizona Diamondbacks lost over a hundred games that they’d be about to begin a World Series, I think my eyes would’ve popped out of my head. A team full of youth and inexperience makes their way onto the big stage after following maybe even more of an improbable path as the Rangers did. Little was expected of them at the beginning of the playoffs, but then they went on the road and swept the Milwaukee Brewers, the Los Angeles Dodgers and then fought back from a 2-0 series deficit against the Phillies and won the NLCS in seven games by some improbable magic.
The Diamondbacks have quietly been one of the best defensive teams in the league this season and their strategy of playing very aggressive baseball and doing anything possible to win games has paid off in a huge way as this group of underdogs finds themselves four wins away from doing what most would consider the impossible. Unlike the rest of the teams in this postseason, the Diamondbacks have relied less on home runs and more on stringing hits together and using speed to score runs. Right fielder Corbin Carroll, center fielder Alek Thomas and shortstop Ketel Marte headline this offensive machine that has ripped apart some of the best pitching staffs in baseball this month en route to the biggest stage any of them have ever seen.
As we’ve seen with the Rangers, it takes more than just a strong offensive attack to be successful in the month of October. The youth movement within the team extends to the pitching staff as well, anchored by a trio of young starters in Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and Brandon Pfaadt. Gallen and Kelly have been excellent in this postseason and Pfaadt has had some unbelievable performances over the last few series, even more impressive considering he’s just a rookie. For the Dbacks to be successful in this series they’ll need consistency from those three as well as their bullpen which has really been a strength for them this month. At the back end, right handers Kevin Ginkel and Paul Sewald have yet to be scored upon in these playoffs and lefty Andrew Saalfrank is another rookie who’s shown extreme maturity and been able to come in and get some big outs for them.
Though it would take some additional magic for them to come out on top, it’s hard to argue that it’s impossible with the success they’ve had recently.
As unlikely a matchup as it may be, this series is sure to have all of the intrigue, drama and the suspense that’s become synonymous with October postseason baseball so buckle up and grab your popcorn America!
