Just two seasons ago, no one could have imagined that the Arizona Diamondbacks would face the Texas Rangers in the World Series.
At the end of the 2021 season, the Rangers and Diamondbacks were in the basement of the major baseball rankings with records of 60-102 and 52-110, respectively.
By reaching the Finals two years after a 100-loss season, these teams joined a select club consisting of the Boston Braves (1914), the Boston Red Sox (1967), the New York Mets (1969) and the Rays of Tampa Bay (2008) passed).
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The road to the World Series was therefore full of pitfalls and Rangers outfielder Adolis Garcia didn’t hesitate to point them out.
“We lost almost 200 games on this trip,” he said at a news conference after his team’s win over the Houston Astros on Monday night. Most importantly, it’s not even about beating the Astros or that particular opponent, it’s about how proud we are of how far we’ve come and how we’ve been able to improve through celebration to get where we are.”
In 2022, the Texans also failed to make the playoffs and now rank third among teams with the lowest winning percentage (.420) in a campaign prior to a World Series appearance.
Looking a little further, the D-Backs and Lone Stars posted a combined winning percentage of .438 last campaign, which was the second-lowest return for a Fall Classic poster in circuit history.
In short, these two teams simply surprised the baseball world and will now compete for the Commissioner’s Trophy on Friday at Globe Life Field in Arlington.