ARLINGTON, Texas — As the season nears its final stretch and the remaining three weeks toward game No. 162 continues, the Texas Rangers get another reminder of their greatest moment.
On November 1, 2023, at Chase Field in Arizona, Josh Sborz let loose a breaking ball that hooked over the outside corner and caught Ketel Marte looking at strike three to seal the Rangers’ first World Series Championship.
Fast forward to a two-game set 10 months later and it’s the Diamondbacks that were more quickly able to shake off the World Series hangover to find themselves in a similar position as they were in last year – Wild Card contenders with a 1.5 game lead over the rest of the pack.
The Rangers, meanwhile, never could quite get rid of that hangover all season. Like Arizona, Texas is in third place in their division, but unlike the Diamondbacks, they’re highly unlikely to play past the last week of September with 10 fewer wins than Arizona this year and needing a collapse of the two teams ahead of them in the AL West for any hope at October baseball.
Nostalgia will be running rampant, though, and the Rangers, on the closest thing to a hot streak as they’ve had all season, will be looking to recapture some of that magic in the desert.
Texas Rangers (70-74, 3rd Place AL West, 8.0 GB) @ Arizona Diamondbacks (80-64, 3rd Place NL West, 6.0 GB)
Arizona down the stretch
At the trade deadline, the D-Backs realistically only felt like they needed to fill two holes, both regarding pitching. Before the calendar flipped to August, the Diamondbacks struck a deal with the Washington Nationals for Dylan Floro to supplement their bullpen. A few days prior to the deadline, they traded with the Miami Marlins for starter A.J. Puk. That seemed to finish out things for Arizona, but with an injury scare to first base slugger Christian Walker, general manager Mike Hazen also enlisted the services of Josh Bell from the Marlins.
Arizona got to the point of being buyers by having their hottest month of the year in July, going 17-8; they followed that up by having their second hottest month in August, going 18-9, positioning themselves firmly, if not a little precariously in the second Wild Card spot in the National League.
The NL West, though, is top heavy, with the ever-dominant Los Angeles Dodgers leading the way and the top 2 Wild Card spots occupied by the D-Backs and the San Diego Padres.
The Diamondbacks are coming off losing a series against the Astros in Houston. After the short two game set with Texas, which is bookended by days off, Arizona has three series against winning teams – two against the first place Milwaukee Brewers and one against the team immediately ahead of them in the Wild Card race for now, division rival San Diego.
In between those are a couple of series against the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies. Essentially, Arizona will need to continue playing like they were when the second half started to stay in the position that they’re in. For Texas, that could mean a long couple of days in the desert.
The matchups
- Game 145, 8:40 PM CT - RHP Nathan Eovaldi (11-7, 3.55 ERA) vs. RHP Zac Gallen (11-6, 3.69 ERA)
- Game 146, 2:40 PM CT - LHP Cody Bradford (5-2, 3.05 ERA) vs. RHP Merrill Kelly (4-0, 4.08 ERA)
The most recent World Series combatants will be throwing two of their best starters at each other. The series opener will be an “Ace Off,” as Nathan Eovaldi takes the hill for Texas, while Zac Gallen toes the rubber for the Diamondbacks in a rematch of the deciding Game 5 from last November.
The 2023 Cy Young contender Gallen opened up the month of September very strongly after a bumpy August. For the month of August, Gallen compiled a 4.94 ERA across 27 ⅓ innings in his five starts. Most recently, however, the righty is coming off a stellar start against the Giants, pitching six scoreless.
Gallen has been prone to walks recently, giving up 16 in his last six starts, including four against San Francisco. Gallen did not face Texas this year, but pitched well against them in the World Series, allowing just one run in the game that clinched it for the Rangers as he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before Texas charged ahead to claim their first ever Fall Classic.
Eovaldi, himself, is on a winning and quality start streak. Dating back to August 17, Eovaldi has recorded four quality starts in a row, including a seven-inning, two-run performance against the Yankees last time out. He has also been more walk prone than usual as of late, but has been heavy on the strikeouts.
The effort might not be enough to get Texas back to the postseason, but down the stretch, Eovaldi has been pitching at his playoff best.
Cody Bradford, who will take the hill for Texas in the finale, is coming off recording his fifth quality start in a row. Losing Bradford early in the season for much of the year now appears as a season-defining loss for Texas. Bradford’s most recent outing against the Angels saw him throw six innings of one-run ball, allowing just two hits, inducing a lot of weak contact.
As Texas starts looking forward to an offseason that will draw plenty of questions about the stability and reliability of the pitching staff, Bradford seems to have penciled his name into the rotation for 2025.
Opposing him is Merrill Kelly, another starter, like Bradford, who began the season strong for his team before injury took him out of the equation for the summer. Kelly, however, has not been as effective as Bradford since his return, having a very rough August.
The veteran and only winning pitcher for Arizona in last year’s World Series posted a 6.75 in four starts last month, with opponents hitting .318 against him. Needless to say, his seven-inning, two-run outing against the Giants last time out was much needed. He scattered six hits, but didn’t walk anyone while striking out eight batters.
Both bullpens rank in the bottom third in baseball in ERA, with Arizona just a few hundredths of a point better than the Rangers. But the two off days surrounding the two-game set benefits the Diamondbacks more, as they’ll be able to go full tilt against Texas. The Rangers have to head to Seattle after the afternoon finale in an important matchup against the Mariners.
The Rangers are aiming to clean up in Arizona before heading to Seattle for a showdown against the team directly ahead of them in the division, amidst hopes that both Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom will return to a rotation that will be debuting top prospect Kumar Rocker.
Do you think the Rangers will remember the good ol’ days and take the series in Arizona? Share your predictions with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
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