PHOENIX – Bruce Bochy barely had time to raise his arms to the sky. His coaches showered him with hugs and pats on the back as soon as the final pitch of the 2023 season reached the strike zone, capping 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 mitt Wednesday night, Bochy disappeared, if only for a moment, and reappeared to join his players on the field. He had thought about reliving nights like these in a dugout in Germany and on his couch in Nashville. He had wondered if he could do it again. Now he was back in his usual place at this time of year: holding up the Commissioner’s Trophy to mark a title.
For the first time in franchise history, the Rangers can call themselves world champions. But the cast of the new kings of sport were certainly familiar with the stage. Bochy led his fourth team to the title. Corey Seager won his second World Series MVP trophy. Nathan Eovaldi gave the Rangers pitching a boost, much like he did with the Boston Red Sox en route to the 2018 crown. Texas general manager Chris Young will add a World Series ring to a collection that already includes the ring he won as a player with the Kansas City Royals in 2015.
Seager led off the go-ahead run in the seventh inning. Eovaldi endured six difficult innings without surrendering. Bochy pressed all the right buttons in the final frames to hold off Arizona. Watching Bochy behave like a maestro with his substitutes felt like a trip into the sport’s recent past. He radiated joy as Texas put up a four-run effort in the ninth.
Bochy once ruled October. His Giants won three titles in five years in the 2010s. He became known for his bullpen management. Even at age 68, his skills have not failed him, even as removing a pitcher has become increasingly dangerous. Bochy walks as if there were a stone in his shoe, but he can’t tell which one. He once preached so much about the joys of walking that he wrote a book about it. But that was almost a decade ago, before he first retired from management in 2019 and subsequently underwent a series of surgeries on his back, hip and knee. He spent the intervening hours golfing and fishing, grateful not to have participated in the Covid-ravaged 2020 season.
A little over a year ago, Bochy returned to the dugout. He wore the tricolor of France, his country of birth, when he captained the club in the trials of the World Baseball Classic in Regensburg, Germany. The French were routed, but the experience awakened something in Bochy. “I said, ‘Man, I really miss this,'” he said before Game 5.
The opportunity to return came to Young, who played for Bochy in San Diego in the 2000s. Young considered Bochy the ideal candidate to lead the Rangers, a club full of unproven young players and high-priced free agents. Young visited Bochy at the retired skipper’s home in Nashville and convinced him to return. The team wanted to compete but couldn’t be sure about the schedule. In 2023, Texas seemed poised for prime time at times. At times it looked as if the Rangers would finish third and spend October on the couch. The club endured a rollercoaster ride into November, showing the resilience and courage that befits a champion.
The Rangers refused to fold when $185 million offseason signing 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 later defeated Texas three straight times 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 bolstered his starting rotation at the trade deadline. After Houston took control of the ALCS, Texas defeated its in-state rivals in Games 6 and 7 on the road at Minute Maid Park. With García and Scherzer injured, the Rangers just kept going, running roughshod over Arizona’s reserves in Game 4 before getting the job done on Wednesday.
Game 5 cleansed the palate after a miserable, reliever-dominated Game 4. For Texas, Eovaldi overcame five walks and a boatload of traffic. Arizona countered with Zac Gallen, their most successful starting player. The series had reached this point because the Diamondbacks lacked depth in their rotation and bullpen.
Texas overwhelmed Arizona the first two nights at Chase Field. The Rangers’ pitching staff kept the Diamondbacks off the bases in Game 3. A night later, Seager and Marcus Semien turned manager Torey Lovullo’s bullpen game on its head. In the hours before Game 5, Lovullo lamented that he didn’t intentionally hit Seager in the second inning of Game 4. When reliever Kyle Nelson hit a slider, Seager delivered his third home run of the series. In retrospect, Lovullo admitted that he agreed with his online critics, a group he referred to as “basement keyboard hammers.” In this case, the basement dwellers were right. “It wasn’t a good decision on my part,” Lovullo said. “I have to get better, there’s no doubt about it.”
Lovullo had to make fewer decisions in the first innings of Game 5. Gallen, Arizona’s last line of defense, took the field at 5:03 p.m. Fireworks exploded over the ballpark as Gallen led the Diamondbacks onto the diamond. While Arizona stumbled in the basement of the National League West for many years, Gallen offered hope. A slow September cost him a chance at the NL Cy Young Award this season. Gallen struggled with early inning issues throughout October. Arizona still trusted him to keep the season alive.
Gallen played with impeccable fastball control early in Game 5. He retired the first 14 batters he faced. He used the heater to challenge the Rangers inside the strike zone and set up off-speed pitches outside the zone. He retired Seager in the first inning with a well-placed 1-2 changeup. Seager fished for the pitch and ended up on the ground. Three innings later, Gallen threw a first-pitch changeup in a similar spot. Seager reached again and rolled a grounder to the right side of the infield. Seven of Gallen’s first twelve outs came on the ground. He needed 35 pitches to complete four innings.
The Diamondbacks placed much more value 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 with a single. Carroll recorded a hit of his own early in the third, with second baseman Ketel Marte walking behind him. On all three occasions, Eovaldi left the runners stranded. After veteran infielder Evan Longoria missed a two-out double in the fourth, Eovaldi didn’t panic. He caught No. 9 batter Geraldo Perdomo looking for a 94 mph fastball to escape. Arizona went scoreless on eight early drives with runners in scoring position.
Texas taxed Gallen in the fifth. He still kept her off the board. Gurriel ran a well-hit drive from rookie third baseman Josh Jung into the gap in left-center. A two-out walk by first baseman Nathaniel Lowe ended Gallen’s improbable attempt at a perfect game. Gallen recovered by hitting Heim with a curveball into the dirt.
Eovaldi bent and bent and bent some more at the end of the inning. He’s not broken. Marte walked and first baseman Christian Walker sprayed a single into right field. A walk from designated hitter Tommy Pham loaded the bases. Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux visited the mound. It’s unlikely he instructed Eovaldi to float a curveball at the top of the strike zone. But that’s exactly what Eovaldi did – and Gurriel tapped the tamer into Seager’s glove for the third time.
Gallen allowed his first hit in the seventh. Of course it was Seager. His single lacked the concussive punch of his home runs earlier in the series. He struck out a curveball that Gallen again located in the low-and-away quadrant, which confused Seager early in the game. This time, Seager cut off enough of the baseball to shoot it through the vacated ground near third base.
A miniaturized rally followed. Texas rookie Evan Carter scored a double off a misplaced curveball. Mitch Garver, the designated hitter, hit a go-ahead single up the middle to score Seager and give Texas a 1-0 lead. Gallen received a standing ovation for his efforts. He would still end the game due to the unfortunate loss.
Bochy turned to his trio of high-impact relievers for the final nine outs. Aroldis Chapman took two. Bochy made the long trek to the mound to activate Sborz. Sborz finished the seventh and earned a two-out walk in the eighth. At the end of the ninth period, the tension wore off for Texas. The Rangers strung together three singles against Arizona closer Paul Sewald. The third hit, hit by Heim, went under the glove of center fielder Alek Thomas and resulted in two runs.
The Texas dugout exploded as Heim’s ball rolled into the wall. Bochy stood on the top step. As his players crossed the plate, he offered one of his giant mittens for a high five. He clapped his hands and grinned a few batters later when Semien put the champagne on ice with a two-run home run. Bochy was able to survive the final three outs. He had stood on this peak before. He understood that it never got old.
On a couch in Nashville, in the dugout in Germany, a night like this would have felt like a dream. On Wednesday evening, Bochy was able to call himself a champion for the fourth time in his successful managerial career.
(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)