After a 62-year-long quest for a championship since the establishment of the franchise, the Texas Rangers won the World Series, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 5-0 showdown to secure the title in Game 5.
Leading by a game score of 3-1, both the Rangers and D-Backs started Game 5 with six scoreless innings. Shortstop Corey Seager, who recorded clutch performances in his previous World Series appearances with the LA Dodgers, snapped the no-hitter drought in the seventh, and Mitch Garver’s single two batters down the line brought Seager back to home for the first score of the day. The Rangers would eventually bulldoze the D-Backs in the ninth by scoring four runs, two of which came from a two-run center field moonshot by Paul Sewald.
Rangers fans were overjoyed by the franchise’s first World Series. More than a decade earlier, the Rangers made two appearances in the World Series, 2010 and 2011, only to suffer heartbreaking losses to the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals in those respective years. Former President Geroge W. Bush, who used to hold a stake in the Rangers and served as the managing general partner in the early 90’s, also celebrated the much-deserved victory by expressing, “this was baseball at its finest, and Laura and [he] are proud of this team.”
What Rangers fans will not have to suffer anymore is being a part of the list of five franchises that have yet to win the World Series after the Rangers’ win — the Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays and San Diego Padres.