FOG BLOG SPORTS LOG: TEXAS RANGERS MAKE HISTORY BY WINNING THEIR FIRST WORLD SERIES!

Texas Rangers make history and bring home their first World Series

The Rangers won 4-1 in a hotly contested series, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks to win the championship trophy. This week was a spooky one for most, but perhaps no one more so than for the Arizona Diamondbacks. On Wednesday, Nov. 1, the Texas Rangers defeated the Diamondbacks 5-0 to cap off a 4-1 series win, clinching the franchise’s first-ever World Series title. They made league history as well, becoming the first team in Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason history to go perfect on the road, winning all 11 games on their travels. This came despite going under .500 (with a record of 40-41) in away games this season.

Last season, the Rangers and Diamondbacks both finished fourth in their division with a combined record of 142-182. In 2021, they both finished last in their respective divisions, with Texas losing 102 games and Arizona dropping a joint-league-worst 110 defeats. It is safe to say these teams came out of nowhere, each making an improbable run to baseball’s biggest stage, knocking off seemingly insurmountable hurdles along the way.

The Rangers completed the regular season with a 90-72 record, winning the second of three wildcard spots in a wild American League playoff race that lasted up until the final day. They were just two games above the Seattle Mariners, who just missed out on the playoffs.

As the lower seed, they knocked off the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 in a best-of-three wild card and followed that up by sweeping the Baltimore Orioles 3-0, who had the American League’s (AL) best record, in the ALDS. In five games, the Rangers managed to knock off the top two teams in the AL, toppling the AL East division — which had been touted this season as one of the best in baseball history. They then faced off with a familiar foe, the division-rival Houston Astros. This was the Astros’ sixth consecutive ALCS appearance, winning the pennant four of those six years, including a World Series title last season. The Rangers won this series in seven games, with every game being won by the away team.

They returned to the World Series for the first time since 2011, when they were a strike away from winning their very first World Series before St. Louis Cardinals’ David Freese hit two clutch hits; a game-tying two-run triple in the ninth, followed by a game-winning 11th inning home run to send the series to a seventh game. The Cardinals would win game seven, extending the Rangers fans’ misery for another 12 years.