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Rangers best D-Backs in Game 5 game for first World Series title

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PHOENIX — Bruce Bochy barely had time to raise his arms to the sky. His coaches embraced him with hugs and slaps in the back as soon as the final ball of the 2023 season reached the strike zone, ending this 5-0 Texas Rangers victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 5 of the World Series. When reliever Josh Sborz’s curveball landed in catcher Jonah Heim’s glove Wednesday night, Bochy disappeared, if only for a moment, and reappeared to join his players on the field. He had thought about returning to nights like this in a dugout in Germany and on his couch in Nashville. He had wondered if he would succeed again. Now he had returned to his usual place at this time of year: hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy in commemoration of a title.

For the first time in franchise history, the Rangers can call themselves world champions. But for new kings of the sport, their cast was quite familiar with the stage. Bochy managed to lead his fourth team to a title. Corey Seager picked up his second World Series MVP trophy. Nathan Eovaldi supported the Rangers’ pitching staff just as he did with the Boston Red Sox en route to the 2018 crown. Texas general manager Chris Young will add a World Series ring to the collection that already includes the ring he made as a player won with the Kansas City Royals in 2015.

Seager provided the go-ahead goal in the seventh inning. Eovaldi survived six difficult innings without capitulating. Bochy pressed the right buttons to stave off Arizona in the final frames. Watching Bochy handle his relievers like a maestro felt like a trip into the sport’s recent past. He radiated delight as Texas mounted a four-run attack in the ninth.

Bochy once ruled October. His Giants won three titles within five years in the 2010s. He became known for his bullpen management. At 68, the skill hasn’t failed him, even as removing a pitcher has become more dangerous. Bochy walks as if there is a stone in his shoe, but he cannot distinguish which one. He once promoted the joys of running so much that he wrote a book about it. But that was almost a decade ago, before his first managerial retirement in 2019, after which he underwent a series of operations on his back, hips and knee. He spent the intervening hours golfing and fishing and was grateful not to participate in the Covid-ravaged 2020 season.

Just over a year ago, Bochy returned to the dugout. He wore the tricolor of France, the country where he was born, when he led the club during the trials of the World Baseball Classic in Regensburg, Germany. The French were routed, but the experience awakened something within Bochy. “I said, ‘Man, I really miss this,’” he said before Game 5.

The opportunity to return came from Young, who played for Bochy in San Diego in the 2000s. Young viewed Bochy as the ideal candidate to shepherd the Rangers, a club chock full of unproven young players and expensive free agents. Young visited Bochy at the retired skipper’s home in Nashville and convinced him to return. The team planned to compete but couldn’t be sure of the timeline. At times in 2023, Texas seemed ready for prime time. At times, the Rangers looked headed for a third-place finish and an October on the bench. The club rode a rollercoaster, but it lasted until November, showing the resilience and courage that befits a champion.

The Rangers refused to fold when $185 million offseason addition Jacob deGrom required Tommy John surgery after just six starts. The team refused to fold as the Houston Astros clinched the American League West on the final day of the regular season and later defeated Texas for three straight losses in the AL Championship Series. The team refused to fold when outfielder Adolis García and starter Max Scherzer suffered season-ending injuries in Game 3 of the World Series.

After deGrom went down, Young filled his starting rotation at the trade deadline. After Houston took control of the ALCS, Texas crushed their in-state rivals in Games 6 and 7 on the road at Minute Maid Park. After García and Scherzer got hurt, the Rangers kept humming along, running roughshod over Arizona’s relievers in Game 4 before finishing the job Wednesday.

Game 5 cleared the palate after a miserable, reliever-dominated Game 4. For Texas, Eovaldi overcame five walks and a ton of traffic. Arizona countered with Zac Gallen, their most talented starting pitcher. The series had reached this point because the Diamondbacks lacked depth in their rotation and bullpen.

Texas overwhelmed Arizona on its first two nights at Chase Field. The Rangers’ pitching staff kept the Diamondbacks off the bases in Game 3. A night later, Seager and Marcus Semien turned manager Torey Lovullo’s bullpen game on its head. In the hours before Game 5, Lovullo complained that he had not intentionally walked Seager in the second inning of Game 4. When reliever Kyle Nelson hit a slider, Seager delivered his third home run of the series. In the aftermath, Lovullo admitted that he agreed with his online critics, a group he called “basement keyboard pounders.” The cellar dwellers were right in this case. “It wasn’t a great decision on my part,” Lovullo said. “I have to be better, there’s no doubt about that.”

Lovullo had fewer decisions to make in the early innings of Game 5. Gallen, Arizona’s last line of defense, took the field at 5:03 p.m. Fireworks burst over the ballpark as Gallen led the Diamondbacks to the diamond. For years, as Arizona stumbled through the cellar of the National League West, Gallen offered hope. A slow September cost him a shot at this season’s NL Cy Young award. Gallen faced early innings issues throughout October. Arizona still trusted him to keep the season alive.

Gallen operated with impeccable fastball command early in Game 5, laying down the first 14 batters he faced. He used the heater to challenge the Rangers inside the offensive zone and set up offspeed pitches outside the zone. In the first inning, he eliminated Seager with a well-placed 1-2 changeup. Seager fished for the pitch and grounded out. Three innings later, Gallen threw a changeup on the first pitch to a similar spot. Seager reached base again and rolled a grounder to the right side of the infield. Seven of Gallen’s first twelve outs came on the ground. He needed 35 pitches to complete four innings.

The Diamondbacks put a lot more pressure on Eovaldi. Arizona rookie Corbin Carroll led off the first inning with a walk and stole second base on Eovaldi’s fifth pitch. Outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. led off the second with a single. Carroll recorded a hit of his own to start the third, with second baseman Ketel Marte trailing behind him. On all three occasions Eovaldi stranded the runners. After veteran infielder Evan Longoria hit a two-out double in the fourth, Eovaldi didn’t panic. He caught No. 9 hitter Geraldo Perdomo facing a 90-mph fastball to escape. Arizona went hitless in eight early at bats with runners in scoring position.

Texas charged Gallen in the fifth. He still kept them off the plate. Gurriel ran a well-struck drive from rookie third baseman Josh Jung into the left-center gap. A two-out walk by first baseman Nathaniel Lowe ended Gallen’s improbable bid for a perfect game. Gallen recovered by whiffing Heim in the dirt with a curveball.

Eovaldi bowled and bowled and then some more in the bottom half of the inning. He didn’t break. Marte walked and first baseman Christian Walker sprayed a single into right field. A walk from design hitter Tommy Pham loaded the bases. Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux visited the mound. It’s unlikely he instructed Eovaldi to float a curveball at the top of the strike zone. But that’s what Eovaldi did – and Gurriel tapped the bender into Seager’s glove for the third out.

Gallen allowed his first goal in the seventh. Of course it was Seager. His single missed the concussion of his home runs earlier in the series. He swung at a curveball, again located by Gallen in the low-and-away quadrant that confused Seager earlier in the game. This time, Seager cut off enough of the baseball to fire it through the cleared dirt near third base.

A miniaturized rally followed. Texas rookie Evan Carter doubled on a misplaced curveball. Mitch Garver, the designated hitter, hit a go-ahead single up the middle to score Seager and give Texas a 1-0 lead. Gallen received a standing ovation for his efforts. He would still leave the game due to the bad luck loss.

Bochy turned to his trio of high-leverage relievers for the final nine outs. Aroldis Chapman took two. Bochy made the long trek to the mound to activate Sborz. Sborz finished the seventh and worked around a two-out walk in the eighth. The tension eased for Texas in the top of the ninth. The Rangers put together three hits against Arizona closer Paul Sewald. The third, hit by Heim, went under the glove of center fielder Alek Thomas and accounted for two runs.

The Texas dugout erupted as Heim’s ball rolled toward the wall. Bochy was on the top step. He offered one of his enormous mitts for a high five as his players crossed the plate. He clapped his hands and grinned a few batters later, when Semien put the champagne on ice with a two-run home run. Bochy was able to grin through the last three outs. He had stood on this peak before. He understood that it never got old.

On a bench in Nashville, in the dugout in Germany, a night like this might have felt like a dream. On Wednesday evening, Bochy could call himself champion for the fourth time in his distinguished managerial career.

(Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

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