Rangers lead Fall Classic 1-0

 Yesterday night the Rangers hosted the D-Backs in game 1 of the 2023 World Series. The starting matchup for game one was Rangers' Nathan Eovaldi against Zac Gallen. Both pitchers were solid in the regular season, posting ERAs of 3.63 and 3.47 respectively.

Scoring opened in the first inning when Evan Carter hit an RBI double, scoring Corey Seager. He was later driven in on an Adolis Garcia single.

But the D-Backs weren't held down for long, and in the third inning struck at the heel of the Ranger Starter, tagging him for three runs on two singles, a sac bunt, and a triple. 

The Rangers tied up the game in the bottom of the inning on an RBI walk by Mitch Garver, but Tommy Pham led off the top of the fourth inning with a solo shot that put Arizona back on top.

In the top of the fifth, a single and a double put up a fifth run for the D-Backs and knocked Big Game Nate out of the game for the Rangers struggling bullpen.

Dane Dunning was first out of the bullpen for Texas and finished the fifth inning. He went on to throw two thirds of the sixth, giving up a single before Cody Bradford came in to end the inning and get Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte out in the top half of the seventh. He left the job to Jon Gray, who got the next out quickly.

Arizona reliever Joe Mantiply came on in the bottom of the seventh as the third D-Backs pitcher. He made quick work of the Texas offense, shutting them down 1-2-3. Jon  Gray threw a scoreless eighth inning giving up only a single to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. 

Arizona's setup man Kevin Ginkel then came on to pitch the eighth for the D-Backs and got out of the inning with still a 5-3 lead, even though he allowed two baserunners and threw a wild pitch. 

In the top half of the ninth Jon Gray struck out Evan Longoria before getting pulled in favor of Will Smith, who got the next two batters out on groundout and a lineout to Adolis Garcia.

In the bottom of the ninth, Arizona's closer Paul Sewald came in to finish the win. But things didn't go as planned. Sewald walked Leody Taveras, and after striking out Marcus Semien gave up a monster two-run home run to Corey Seager before getting out of the inning. It was Sewald's first blown save of the postseason, and the game was going to extra innings (with no softball runner).

Jose Leclerc proceeded to throw a 1-2-3 inning for Texas, and Kyle Nelson threw a scoreless inning for the D-Backs, giving up a single and two walks but being saved by a double play.

Jose Leclerc threw a scoreless tenth and Kyle Nelson came back to pitch for Arizona. After getting Evan Carter to fly out, he laid way to Miguel Castro to face Adolis Garcia.

After getting to a 3-1 count, Castro threw a fastball that Adolis lined to right field. Rightfielder Corbin Carroll drifted back, then a little more, then leaped, and the ball was gone! It was a walkoff solo shot for ALCS MVP Adolis Garcia to end the game.

Though the game was ended on a home run, walks are what lost the game for Arizona. They walked ten batters that game, and one of those was Leody Taveras, who scored on the Corey Seager homer way back in the ninth. It just goes to show you that walking batters can lose you games.

Thank you for reading.