By Rory Carroll
(Reuters) – The 2023 World Series will pit two gritty wild-card teams that have proved deadly on the road against each other when the Texas Rangers play host to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Game One on Friday.
Home field advantage may not mean much to the Rangers, who lost three home games but won four at Minute Maid Park in dispatching the defending champion Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series.
The Rangers, who are seeking their first World Series championship, started the playoffs red hot, hammering the Tampa Bay Rays in two road games and emerging victorious from the wild card round.
They followed that up by sweeping the 101-win Baltimore Orioles in the Division Series before overcoming the Astros in Game Seven of the ALCS to capture the franchise’s third pennant.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy will send ace Nathan Eovaldi to the mound for Game One.
The 33-year-old righty was dominant at the start of the year before missing more than a month with a forearm strain. He struggled upon his return but has found his form again in the playoffs.
Eovaldi will look to silence a Diamondbacks club that has had an equally stunning run to reach Major League Baseball’s biggest stage.
The “D-backs” finished the regular season 16-games behind the Dodgers in the NL West but after sweeping the Brewers in two games in Milwaukee, did the same to heavily-favored Los Angeles in the NLCS.
It appeared they might have run out of steam when they dropped their first two contests to the Philadelphia Phillies but they roared back, winning Games Six and Seven in the manic atmosphere of Citizens Bank Park for the NL pennant.
The Diamondbacks, a former expansion team that joined the league in 1998, have come up big in the Fall Classic before, putting an end to the New York Yankees’ dynasty in a thrilling seven-game series for their lone title in 2001.
Arizona will hand the ball to righty Zac Gallen, who was named an All-Star for the first time this season.
At the plate they will hope for continued production from presumptive NL Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll and NLCS MVP Ketel Marte, who is riding a record 16-game postseason hitting streak.
The Rangers meanwhile hope right fielder Adolis Garcia can continue his electrifying play. The Cuban slugger drove in a postseason series record 15 RBI thanks to a Game Six grand slam and two Game Seven homers to walk away with NLCS MVP honors.
While it may not be the matchup anyone predicted, Bochy said he will relish it.
“This is what you dream about, this is what you sacrifice for, it’s what you play for – to have the ability to play on the biggest stage in baseball,” Bochy, who won three titles at the helm of the San Francisco Giants, told reporters.
“You have to savor and be honored by it because it doesn’t happen a lot. It’s not easy to get here, so enjoy.”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
