Welcome to the 119th World Series, the first played entirely in climate-controlled settings, the first with two teams that lost more than 100 games just two years earlier, the first with a combined regular-season winning percentage as low as .537 and the first absolutely nobody saw coming.
Well, I did try to warn you before the season started, at least as far as Texas and Arizona looking like surprise playoff teams. But the World Series? Please. But think of their appearance here as a feature, not a bug, of the playoff system.
The Rangers and D-Backs earned their way here by taking out a combined six higher seeded teams, going undefeated when they score first (7–0 and 6–0, respectively), going a combined 14–2 on the road, winning two LCS elimination games each on the road and leaning hard into leadership experience. Bruce Bochy, 68, of Texas and Torey Lovullo, 58, of Arizona have 33 years of combined managerial experience, and pitching coaches Mike Maddux, 62, and Brent Strom, 75, have been at their jobs for 53 combined years.
