Last Gun in the West

 

I think I've said this every year, but all I want out of an MLB season is a great story. I'm a writer after all. There's nothing worse than a story that doesn't feel like it needs to exist. Most of the time, you can tell a great story from the narrative that elapses over the course of a season. Sometimes it's easy, like when the Cubs won their first World Series in over 100 years. Sometimes it's a little less likely but still welcome, like when the Nationals and Braves came back from rough midseason finishes and took it all. And sometimes the story ends anticlimactically, like last year. 

All I needed was something better than 2022. And I can say definitively that the Texas Rangers winning their first ever World Series ring is better than a second Astros win. 

I checked back on some of my early thoughts on the Rangers this year, ironically after they beat down my Phillies to open the season, and I was worried initially. Jacob deGrom got lit up a bit, and had to work to come back down from that. The contracted stars took a bit to find themselves [as Semien tends to]. It was people like Josh Jung that were leading the charge from the beginning. I wasn't sure if this would be a marginal improvement over their previous year or if Bruce Bochy was the missing piece they needed.

Slowly, their story unfolded. By May, they were known for their double digit victories and their incredible offense, led by Adolis Garcia, Jonah Heim and Corey Seager. By July, though still in the lead in the AL West, they sent five starters to the All Star Game. Then in August, despite nabbing Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery at the deadline, they fell apart and lost the division to Seattle, and eventually Houston. In September they'd have to fight to secure a playoff spot to begin with, and rode a winnable final week to a wild card spot. Then they battled back against monolithic regular season teams like the Orioles and Rays in order to face the Astros. I was hoping beyond hope that the Rangers would be able to take down the Astros and fulfill a season-long arc, and they did that.

And then they took down the streakiest team in the NL, who came at them with 6-innings of no-hit ball from Zac Gallen last night, to win their first ever World Series. THAT is a good story, and a great ending, too.

So many heroes on this team. Scherzer wins his second ring, that's cool enough. Will Smith has now won three rings in as many years, making him the single luckiest guy named Will Smith in this country. Jordan Montgomery was traded by the Yankees last year cause Cashman didn't think he'd start playoff games, and he only had to start one World Series game to keep the train rolling. Travis Jankowski came off the bench to start in place of Adolis Garcia and got his hero moment. Evan Carter came up the month before the playoffs and is a playoff hero for life. And, of course, Corey Seager won his second WS MVP after a back-to-back HR stretch, and cemented his status as one of the most underrated players of the modern era. This was also his single best season to date, and while I'm not sure if that last month will be enough to get sportswriters off the Ohtani train, I feel like he deserves more MVP votes than he'll ultimately get.

I'm 100% satisfied with this outcome. I also think the Diamondbacks had a hell of a run, and can hopefully build off this season with their young stars. But man could those Rangers not be stopped, just like we thought back in May. 

Great ending. I'm good for a few months.