It’s Rangers and Diamondbacks in the World Series

Two Wild Card clubs are MLB league champions and the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks now move on to the World Series. Both league championships series were seven game thrillers, and both pennant winners from last year head for home.

The Texas Rangers routed the Houston Astros 11-4 in Game 7 of the ALCS in Houston on October 23rd. Adolis Garcia was the star of the show, hitting a pair of homers and driving in five runs. Garcia homered in each of the final four games and drove in 15 runs, which is a record for a post season series. Houston starter Cristian Javier lasted just ½ of an inning and allowed three runs, and it was all downhill from there for the defending World Series champs. The road team won each game in this series, and the Rangers are now 8-0 in the post season on the road. The Astros finished the season at 40-47 at home, including the post season.

Over in the NLCS, the defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies won the first two games at home, including a 10-0 drubbing of the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 2. The Diamondbacks were the last Wild Card team in the NL, a position the Phillies were in last season. Arizona won the next two at home, before dropping Game 5 and returning to Philadelphia trailing three games to two. Arizona won Game 6 5-1, setting up Game 7 on October 24th. Philadelphia led 2-1 after four innings, but Arizona took the lead for good with a pair of runs in the fifth. The Diamondbacks’ bullpen allowed just one hit over the last five innings, and Arizona took game 7 4-2.

This will be the third World Series for the Rangers’ franchise, which started in Washington in 1961 as the second incarnation of Washington Senators. The club moved to Arlington, Texas in 1972 and was in the World Series in 2010 and 2011, losing to the San Francisco Giants in 2010 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011. This is just the second World Series for Arizona, which entered the majors in 1998. The Diamondbacks made it to the World Series in 2001, and beat the Yankees in seven games.

The World Series opens in Arlington on October 27th.