PHOENIX — Bruce Bochy hardly had time to raise his arms toward the sky. His coaches showered him with hugs and pats on the back as the final pitch of the 2023 season entered the strike zone, ending the Texas Rangers’ 5-0 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 briefly, reemerging to join his players on the field. He thought back to nights like this in a dugout in Germany and on his couch in Nashville. He wondered if he could ever make it again. Now he has regained his usual place at this time of year: hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy to commemorate a title.
For the first time in franchise history, the Rangers can call themselves world champions. But for the newfound kings of the sport, their cast is quite familiar on stage. Bochy managed his fourth team to a title. Corey Seager collected his second World Series MVP trophy. Nathan Eovaldi powered the Rangers pitching staff as he did the Boston Red Sox en route to the crown in 2018. Texas general manager Chris Young will add a World Series ring to a collection that already includes the ring won as a player with the Kansas City Royals in 2015.
Bruce Bochy is one of five managers to win 4 #WorldSeries titles.
t-1⃣ Joe McCarthy: 7 💍
t-1⃣ Casey Stengel: 7 💍
3⃣ Connie Mack: 5 💍
t-4⃣ Bruce Bochy: 4 💍
t-4⃣ Walter Alston: 4 💍
t-4⃣ Joe Torre: 4 💍Bochy has won 15 of his last 16 postseason series. pic.twitter.com/NaGlpjs7u6
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) November 2, 2023
Seager started the go-ahead, seventh-inning rally. Eovaldi survived six rocky innings without giving up. Bochy hit the right buttons to hold off Arizona in the final frames. Watching Bochy act like a maestro with his relievers is like a trip into the sport’s recent past. He looked pleased as Texas put together a four-run flurry in the ninth.
Bochy once ruled in October. His San Francisco Giants won three titles in five years in the 2010s. He became known for his management of the bullpen. At 68, the skill hasn’t left him, even as the act of removing the pitcher has become more dangerous. Bochy walks like there’s a rock in his shoe but he can’t tell which one. He once proselytized about the joy of walking so much that he wrote a book about it. But that was almost a decade ago, before his first retirement from management in 2019, after which he underwent a series of operations on his back, hip and knee. He spent the intervening hours playing golf and fishing and felt grateful not to have taken part in the Covid-wrecked 2020 season.
A little more than a year ago, Bochy returned to the dugout. He wore the tricolor of France, the country of his birth, as he led the club through the World Baseball Classic trials in Regensburg, Germany. The French were routed, but the experience awakened something within Bochy. “I said, ‘Man, I really missed this,'” he said before Game 5.
DEEP
Rosenthal: ‘He was made for this’ — Rangers manager Bruce Bochy wins fourth World Series
The return opportunity came from Young, who played for Bochy in San Diego in the 2000s. Young considered Bochy the ideal candidate to shepherd the Rangers, a club filled with unproven young players and high-priced free agents. Young visited Bochy at the retired captain’s home in Nashville and convinced him to return. The team intends to compete, but is unsure about the timeline. Sometime in 2023, Texas looks ready for primetime. At times, Rangers looked bound for a third-place finish and an October spent on the couch. The club has been on a rollercoaster ride, but it rode through November, showing the resilience and grit that a champion deserves.
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 eventually swept 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 moved up 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 just kept going, running through Arizona’s relievers in Game 4 before the job was done on Wednesday.
Game 5 cleaned up the palate after a miserable reliever-dominated Game 4. For Texas, Eovaldi walked five and walked a boatload of traffic. Arizona dealt with Zac Gallen, their most accomplished starting pitcher. The series has reached this point because the Diamondbacks lack depth in their rotation and bullpen.
Texas beat Arizona the first two nights at Chase Field. The Rangers’ pitching staff held off the Diamondbacks in Game 3. A night later, Seager and Marcus Semien fired manager Torey Lovullo’s bullpen game. In the hours leading up to Game 5, Lovullo lamented Seager’s inadvertent walk in the second inning of Game 4. When reliever Kyle Nelson hung a slider, Seager hit his third home run of the series. In the aftermath, Lovullo admitted he agreed with his online critics, a group he referred to as “basement keyboard pounders.” The cellar dwellers, in this case, were right. “It wasn’t a good decision by me,” Lovullo said. “I have to get better, there’s no doubt about it.”
Lovullo had fewer decisions to make in the early stages of Game 5. Gallen, Arizona’s last line of defense, entered the field at 5:03 pm local time. Fireworks went off above the ballpark as Gallen led the Diamondbacks onto the diamond. For years, as Arizona stumbled into the basement of the National League West, Gallen offered hope. A sluggish September gave him a shot at the NL Cy Young award this season. Gallen dealt with problems in the early innings this October. Arizona still trusted him to keep the season alive.
Gallen operated with pristine fastball command at the start of Game 5. He sat down the first 14 batters he faced. He used the heater to challenge the Rangers inside the strike zone and set up offspeed pitches outside the zone. In the first inning, he retired Seager with a nice pitch, 1-2 changeup. Seager fished the pitch and grounded out. Three innings later, Gallen threw a first-pitch changeup to a similar spot. Seager reached again and rolled a grounder into the right side of the infield. Seven of Gallen’s first 12 outs came on groundouts. He needed 35 pitches to complete four innings.
The Diamondbacks put more emphasis on Eovaldi. Arizona rookie Corbin Carroll led off the first inning with a four-pitch walk and stole second base on Eovaldi’s fifth pitch. Outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. opened. the second by a single. Carroll recorded a hit of his own to start the third, with second baseman Ketel Marte walking behind him. In all three instances, Eovaldi stranded runners. After veteran infielder Evan Longoria blooped a two-out double in the fourth, Eovaldi didn’t panic. He caught the No. 9 hitter Geraldo Perdomo looking at a 94 mph fastball to escape. Arizona was hitless in eight early at-bats with runners in scoring position.
DEEP
Nathan Eovaldi’s solid Game 5 capped the Rangers’ championship run
Texas threw Gallen in the fifth. He still removed them from the board. Gurriel ran down 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 likely bid for a perfect game. Gallen recovered by hitting Heim with a curveball in the dirt.
Eovaldi bent and bent and bent some more in the bottom of the inning. He was not broken. Marte walked and first baseman Christian Walker sprayed a single into right field. A walk by designated hitter Tommy Pham loaded the bases. Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux visited the mound. He probably didn’t instruct 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 hit in the seventh. Of course, it was Seager. His single lacked the concussive thump of his homers earlier in the series. He swung at a curveball, which Gallen found again in the low-and-away quadrant that had stunned Seager earlier in the game. This time, Seager broke enough of the baseball to shoot it into the open dirt near third base.
A miniaturized rally ensued. Texas rookie Evan Carter cracked a double off a misplaced curveball. Mitch Garver, the designated hitter, stroked a go-ahead single up the middle to score Seager and give Texas a 1-0 lead. Gallen received a standing ovation for his effort. He’ll still leave the game on the hook for a hard-luck loss.
Bochy turned to his trio of high-leverage relievers for the final nine outs. Aroldis Chapman took both. Bochy made the long trip to the mound to revive 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. Rangers combined for three singles against Arizona closer Paul Sewald. The third, hit by Heim, looped under the glove of center fielder Alek Thomas and drove in two runs.
The Texas dugout erupted as Heim’s ball rolled over the wall. Bochy stood on the top step. He offered one of his oversized mitts for a high five as his players crossed the plate. He clapped and smiled a few times later when Semien put the champagne on ice with a two-run home run. Bochy will be smiling for the last three outs. He had been standing on this summit for some time. He understands that it never gets old.
On a couch in Nashville, in the dugout in Germany, a night like this can feel like a dream. On Wednesday night, for the fourth time in his decorated managerial career, Bochy could call himself a champion.
Required reading
(Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
