Rangers Rolled the Right Combination To Win It All For the First Time
PLUS: JOE MADDON'S DISDAIN OF ANALYTICS KEEPS HIM FROM GETTING HIRED
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
After shoulder surgery, Clayton Kershaw might miss most or even all of 2024, compounding his current free agency . . .
Derek Jeter had more playoff home runs (20) than any other shortstop, though Corey Seager had six in the 2023 postseason to rank second with 19 . . .
Tommy Pham’s four-hit game in the World Series was one more than previous Fall Classic designated hitters Reggie Jackson, Bryce Harper, Dave Winfield, Jordan Alvarez, David Ortiz, and Vladimir Guerrero . . .
In each of Merrill Kelly’s first four postseason starts, he never allowed more than three hits . . .
Jordan Montgomery was the 12th starting pitcher to work at least six innings in a World Series game without striking anyone out . . .
In the 1960 World Series, a 16-3 Yankees win over he Pirates, Bob Turley faced 42 hitters in Game 2 and fanned none of them . . .
That Adolis Garcia homer that won World Series Game 1 for Texas in the 11th inning was the first walkoff in an opener since Kirk Gibson in 1988 . . .
From Game 6 of the ALCS through the end of the World Series, Garcia collected five homers in 10 at-bats.
Leading Off
26 Rangers, One World Series Title
They used a hair-raising Game Five to do it, too
By Jeff Kallman
This is for the late Frank Howard, the one Washington Senator above all who didn't want to be hijacked to Arlington, Texas after the 1971 season. The man who also hit both the final-ever Senators home run and the first Rangers home run in Arlington. (They opened on the road against the Angels and the White Sox, but Howard didn’t hit one out there.)
Howard hit the first Rangers bomb in Arlington; they opened on the road against the Angels and White Sox but Howard didn't hit one out there.
This is for Don Mincher, the only man in baseball history to play for two Senators franchises in Washington and in their relocated digs in Minneapolis and Arlington. For Mike Epstein, who went from Washington to Oakland and to Texas, picked up a World Series ring with the middle one, but couldn't live up to unfair hype touting him as the next Mickey Mantle "when I couldn't carry his jock."
This is for David Clyde, the high school pitching virtuoso slammed immediately into the Show, at the insistence of hijacking owner Bob Short—but ruined when Short reneged on promises to his manager Whitey Herzog to farm him out after a couple of gate-goosing starts. The same Clyde who now fights for redress for 500+ fellow short-career major-leaguers frozen out of the 1980 player pension re-alignment.
This is for every Second Nat who made the move to Texas and played on a club that finished worse in its first season in Arlington than in its final season in Washington. For every Ranger since who played on too many clubs to follow that featured no-doubt hitting and full-of-doubt pitching.
This is for every Ranger who visited the then-Indians on Ten Cent Beer Night in June 1974—a week after a Ranger named Lenny Randle triggered a bench-clearing brawl in Arlington—and lived to tell about it without succumbing to the temptation to proclaim, "Twenty-five Rangers, twenty-five Indians, one riot."
(Extra credit if you can name the Hall of Fame pitcher in Rangers fatigues who took one in the breadbasket on a line drive, provoking the bombed to chant "Hit 'im again! Hit 'im again!" in the sixth inning.)
This is for Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, who finished his pitching career as a Ranger, eventually became the team's chief executive officer, and presided over the Rangers' first two World Series teams, back-to-back, 2010-2011, both of which were beaten in those Series—the second of which found them a strike away from the Promised Land when up stepped an interloper named David Freese.
This is especially for Bruce Bochy, who came out of retirement to earn the distinction of managing a World Series winner he'd beaten managing another World Series winner 13 years earlier. Not to mention becoming one of only six managers ever to win four or more Series titles, joining Hall of Fame pilots Joe McCarthy (seven), Casey Stengel (seven), Connie Mack (five), Joe Torre (four), and Walter Alston (four).
But it's also for Nathan Eovaldi, pitching in and out of heavy traffic, managing to escape like a Vespa sneaking through a freeway pileup, keeping the Diamondbacks scoreless. Even while Arizona starter Zac Gallen took a no-hitter into the top of the seventh but the Snakes rewarded him by going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position including leaving the bases loaded in both the first and the fifth.
"I don’t know how many rabbits I have left in my hat," Eovaldi admitted when it was all over. He didn't need them. The Rangers had more than a few other Bugs Bunnies upon which to call.
Because this is also for Corey Seager breaking up the would-be no-no with a leadoff single, Evan Carter doubling him to third, and Mitch Garver singling him home to bust up the mutual shutout. Not to mention Seager becoming one of only two men ever to win Series MVPs with a team in each league.
It's also for the Ranger bullpen—a liability on the regular season with a ghastly 4.60 ERA, but a strength in this postseason—keeping the Snakes from rattling while they got to Diamondbacks finisher Paul Sewald in the top of the ninth to make things stick.
It's for Josh Jung opening the ninth with a base hit, Nathaniel Lowe singling him to second, Jonah Heim singling Jung home with Lowe to follow when usually sure Snakes center fielder Alek Thomas over-ran the ball, and Marcus Semien launching one over the left center field fence.
It's for Josh Sborz pitching two-and-a-third shutout relief innings including three-up, three-down in the ninth. And, becoming only the fifth man to end a World Series conquest with called strike three, behind Julio Urías (2020), Wade Davis (2015), Sergio Romo (2012), and Red Oldham (1925).
But it's also for Adolis García, the Rangers' bombardier, down for the rest of the set after a late Game Three oblique strain, rousing them to go forth and make mayhem in Game Four before playing and winning the Game Five hair-raiser.
It's for a group of Rangers who won 11 straight on the road this postseason, whereas no previous postseason traveling team ever won more than eight straight. It's for Rangers relief pitcher Will Smith winning a third World Series ring with a third different franchise.
It's for a Rangers front office who proved this year that you can spend big to win big, so long as your spending involves brains in hand with the bucks. Even if it takes a guy a couple of inches taller than Frank Howard who once pitched for you to finish what his predecessor Jon Daniels began.
“When I was a kid watching the Rangers,” said executive vice president/general manager Chris Young, “just winning the division was a small victory.”
This time, the Rangers co-won the division (the Astros beat them in their regular-season series; hence their wild card), swept the wild card and division series, beat the ogres from Houston in a seven-game thriller of an American League Championship Series . . . and—after a 2-1 Series lead but the loss of García and ancient starting pitcher Max Scherzer to injuries—out-scored the Diamondbacks 16-7 in the final two Series games.
But this is also for every last philistine who swore this un-boring Series was the most boring Series they'd ever experienced. This Series was many things, many great, some not so great, but boring wasn't even close to one of them.
Sure, the Rangers could and did launch cruise missiles, smart bombs, and atomic bombs almost at will and often in late game hours. But they also pitched with muscle and blood, deployed one of the game's best defenses this season, and whenever they had to they opened run-manufacturing plants to hold fort until the bombers re-calibrated.
It took the franchise a mere 63 years, five ballparks (from ancient Griffith Stadium in Washington through Globe Life Field today), maybe two dozen managers, and 10,333 games to reach the Promised Land. Only the Padres, the Mariners, the Rockies, and the Rays remain among expansion franchises who haven’t gotten there yet.
I’ve said it often enough. In baseball, anything can happen—and usually does. Your new World Series winners are continuing evidence.
Jeff Kallman is an IBWAA Life Member who writes Throneberry Fields Forever. He has written for the Society for American Baseball Research, The Hardball Times, Sports-Central, and other publications. He has lived in Las Vegas since 2007, where he plays the guitar and writes music when not writing baseball. He remains a Met fan since the day they were born.
Cleaning Up
Antipathy to Analytics Keeps 3-Time Top Manager Sidelined
By Dan Schlossberg
Even with three Manager of the Year awards on his shelf and five teams looking to hire, Joe Maddon’s phone isn’t ringing off the hook. Or at all.
Maddon, an innovative type who reached the World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008 and the Chicago Cubs in 2016, last managed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, leaving in the middle of the 2022 campaign.
The apparent lack of interest stems from the fact that Maddon isn’t a huge fan of analytics. He’s been critical of front offices that wanted to lean on analytics, as opposed to Maddon’s hunches-based-upon-experienence.
Maddon had been linked to the Chicago White Sox before that team enlisted rookie pilot Pedro Grifol, who didn’t do much to protect the jobs of Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn in August.
He also wrote a book about his theories of managing. Its innovative title was Try Not to Suck.
Teams still looking for managers are the Mets, Astros, Angels, Brewers, Guardians, and Padres.
Also working against Maddon are his contract demands. Teams typically pay their managers so poorly that Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY wrote an article on that subject last summer.
Anybody who can lead the Cubs out of the wilderness after 108 years deserves solid compensation.
If he returns to the dugout wars, the 69-year-old Maddon would immediately become the oldest manager in the game — a year up on Bruce Bochy and Brian Snitker. But in baseball, age is a matter of mind; if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
Maddon never played in the majors but he certainly understands the major-league mystique. He’s full of fun, surprises, and inspiration.
So what if he disdains analytics? His track record says that doesn’t really matter.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of more than 40 baseball books, including the forthcoming Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
That five-year, $102 million deal Edwin Diaz signed with the Mets won’t stand as the record for closers after Josh Hader finds a new home. The hard-throwing lefty, who turns 30 in April, allowed four earned runs in his first 47 appearances (0.81 ERA) for San Diego and ranked near the 100th percentile in strikeout percentage, chase rate, and hard-hit percentage, among other things . . .
The next great Japanese star in the majors might be starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamota, a 25-year-old with consecutive Pacific League MVP awards and Sawamura trophies (their version of the Cy Young) . . .
Hard to believe Blake Snell, likely winner of the NL’s Cy Young, was 1-6 with a 5.40 ERA after his first nine starts this season . . .
Snell also won a Cy Young in 2018, when he pitched in the American League for Tampa Bay . . .
Post-season stud Jordan Montgomery has been linked to all three of his former teams: the Cardinals, Yankees, and Rangers . . .
If Eduardo Rodriguez opts out of the last three years and $49 million of his Detroit deal, the 30-year-old lefty will have plenty of suitors on the free agent market.
Free agent frenzy starts Monday, with the 30 teams poised to trash last year’s record spending binge of $3.7 billion, for 140 free agents.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
BTW, Red Oldham of the Pirates was the pitcher, not the batter, who ended the 1925 World Series by getting a called third strike. The batter who took strike three was future Hall of Famer Goose Goslin of the Senators.