Title Taken! Texas Rangers Win First World Series With Late Game 5 Rally Against Arizona Diamondbacks

The Texas Rangers won their first World Series title with a nail-biting 5-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 5 Wednesday.

PHOENIX — The Texas Rangers finally put five decades of heartburn and heartbreak to rest Wednesday night.

The Rangers held off the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 to win the franchise's first World Series.

They did it convincingly, too, dispatching the D-backs in five games, including three wins at Chase Field, dismissing the obligatory trip back to Globe Life Field in Arlington for Games 6 or 7. The Rangers were 11-0 on the road in the postseason, an MLB record.

The Rangers have spent the past 52 seasons in Arlington after the franchise began as the Washington Senators in 1961.

To put the Rangers' long title drought in perspective, the Diamondbacks won their lone World Series in 2001, three seasons after joining the league in 1998.

The Rangers were twice one strike away from beating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series but failed to record the final out. The Cardinals rallied to win in extra innings and won Game 7 easily.

D-backs starter Zac Gallen took a no-hitter into the seventh inning but Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi kept up with him in the most important way: no runs allowed.

Corey Seager led off the seventh with a softly-hit single to left to break up Gallen's no-hitter. Rookie Evan Carter followed with a line-drive double to right-center field to give Texas two runners in scoring position for Mitch Garver. Garver ripped a single up the middle to score Seager and give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.

Reliever Kevin Ginkel limited the damage by striking out Josh Jung, and getting Evan Carter caught in a rundown trying to score on Nathaniel Lowe's grounder to first. Jonah Heim popped out to the catcher to end the threat.

The relentless Rangers offense, which led the American League in batting average and runs scored during the regular season, kept coming. And in the ninth, they busted through the D-Backs bullpen with four runs, including two runs on a single and error in center field and a two-run home run from Marcus Semien.

Eovaldi escaped trouble in each of the first five innings he worked. The leadoff hitter reached in the first three innings. But Eovaldi kept escaping the jams. Arizona was 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position through the first five innings. The D-Backs had the bases loaded in the fifth after Eovaldi walked Tommy Pham, but he got Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to ground out to short to end the inning.

Eovaldi's only breezy inning came in the sixth, his last. He retired the D-Backs in order and finished with 97 pitches. He struck out five and walked five and allowed four hits in six innings.

Aroldis Chapman and Josh Sborz combined to pitch the final three innings, including the final 2 1/3 by Sborz.

World Series Game 5: Rangers 5, Diamondbacks 0

Key takeaways from Game 5 at Chase Field:

Double Record For Rookie

Evan Carter seventh-inning double was his ninth of the postseason. His nine doubles are the most by a player in a single postseason. He surpassed the previous record of eight held by Mookie Betts (2020), Ben Zobrist (2015), David Freese (2011), and Albert Pujols (2011).

Home Run Streaking

The Rangers homered in their 15th consecutive postseason game when they hit three in their Game 4 win Tuesday. That's every postseason game since their Wild Card opener at Tampa Bay.

It's the longest homer streak in a single postseason. The previous record was 13 by the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers. The Rangers' 15 consecutive games with a homer is the third-longest streak in history spanning multiple postseasons.

Longest Team Postseason Home Run Streaks

Games, Team, Years
23, Yankees, 2019-22
17, Diamondbacks, 2007-23
15, Rangers, 2023

Jung Gun

Rookie third baseman Josh Jung became the fourth Ranger player with three or more hits in a World Series game. Adolis Garcia did it in Game 1. The others were Adrian Beltre, who had four hits in Game 3 in 2011, and Josh Hamilton, who had three hits in Game 6 in 2011.

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You can follow Stefan Stevenson on Twitter @StefanVersusTex.

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