When you lose to a team in the playoffs, there are generally two schools of thought.

One, you hope they go on win it all, to maybe lessen the sting. You can then say you lost to the team that lifted the trophy. Or, two, you can hope that said team gets totally walloped, which is what happened in this World Series.

The Rangers had zero issues with the Diamondbacks, winning in five while scoring 26 runs in the process. Yeah, they needed extras to take Game 1, and got hammered in Game 2, but they responded with three straight road wins, beating the D Backs in Phoenix by an aggregate of 19-8 after splitting at home. They got Brandon Pfaadt for three runs and chased him in five and a third. They won the bullpen game 11 to 7 and then Nathan Eovaldi outlasted Zac Gallen in a Game 5 pitcher’s duel in which the Rangers opened the floodgates once Paul Sewald entered the game. It’ll go down in history as a 4-1 gentleman’s sweep.

The Rangers’ best players showed up in the biggest moments. Adolis Garcia hit a walk off homer in Game 1. Then, when he was removed from the roster due to injury, the top of the order with Marcus Semien and Corey Seager continued to rip, finishing the series with 13 hits and 14 RBI. Travis Jankowski and Josh Jung got on base. And while the pitching wasn’t always amazing, they got group effort, lockdown performances in Games 3 and 5.

Taking the temperature of Phillies fans, the response I saw most frequently was a two-fer of crediting the Rangers while expressing even more frustration that the Phils couldn’t get it done against Arizona:


More or less. The Phillies may not have beaten this Texas team, but it’s less about that and more about the fact that the D Backs lost in five. They lost three in a row on their home field. I personally believe that the Phils had no business losing to that Arizona team, and seeing Texas put them away 4-1 only reinforces that belief. It’s not a great way to end the story, when you’re left wondering what could have been.