2023 World Series schedule: Rangers vs. Diamondbacks

Here is the 2023 World Series schedule, featuring the American League champion Texas Rangers and the National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks. 

All games are on FOX. All games start at 7:03 p.m. Central:

• Friday, Oct. 27: Diamondbacks at Rangers
• Saturday, Oct. 28: Diamondbacks at Rangers
• Monday, Oct. 30: Rangers at Diamondbacks
• Tuesday, Oct. 31: Rangers at Diamondbacks
• Wednesday, Nov. 1: Rangers at Diamondbacks (if necessary)
• Friday, Nov. 3: Diamondbacks at Rangers (if necessary)
• Saturday, Nov. 4: Diamondbacks at Rangers (if necessary)

Wow, a potential Game 7 on Nov. 4. Good thing they aren't playing in a northern city, huh?

Diamondbacks prove that nobody knows anything with Game 7 win

So, the Arizona Diamondbacks are in the World Series after their 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.

I'll admit it: I didn't think there was anyway in hell that Arizona was going to win two games in a row at Philadelphia to close that series, but that's exactly what happened. 

This once again proves that the only thing I know about baseball is that I know nothing about baseball.

But, good for the Diamondbacks. They are an improbable underdog story. They won only 84 games in the regular season, and they were the sixth and final team to qualify for the NL playoffs.

Arizona had a minus-15 run differential during the regular season, which pencils out to an 80-82 Pythagorean record. The Diamondbacks become the first team to qualify for the World Series with a losing Pythagorean record since the 1987 world champion Minnesota Twins.

This has created quite a debate among baseball people. Is an 84-win league champion proof that too many teams get in the playoffs? Has the postseason become too watered down? Has the value of a good regular season been disregarded?

Honestly, these debates are as old as time. I've heard them in some form for my entire 47 years on the planet. The nature of baseball inevitably leads to upsets in a short playoff series. There's a tremendous amount of variance in small sample sizes.

The Diamondbacks are hardly the first team to advance this far in the playoffs with a rather pedestrian record. Remember the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals? Yeah, they were 83-78, the champions of a weak NL Central. They also won the World Series.

But let's go back a generation or two farther, to an era when only four teams were allowed in the playoffs. 

Remember the 1973 New York Mets? They were 82-79, the champions of a weak NL East. They beat the Cincinnatii Reds -- the Big Red Machine of the 1970s -- in a five-game NLCS. Then they took the Oakland A's to seven games in the World Series before losing. 

Mind you, that was a dynastic Oakland team. The A's won the World Series three years in a row from 1972-1974, but they needed a seventh game to swat away an 82-win team to take the title.

Were the playoffs watered down in 1973 too? You see, there's no perfect system. I see both positives and negatives in the Diamondbacks' story.

The Good: This shows that a smaller-market team has a chance. Why should fans in New York and Los Angeles have all the fun? Even teams that don't get a lot of media attention have an opportunity if they get into the playoffs and peak at the right time.

The Bad: This disincentives teams to strive for greatness. If you have a 92-win team, why bother adding to it to try to become a 100-win team? We've seen this year that regular-season success is just that. It guarantees nothing in the playoffs.

Like I said, no perfect system. But this excitement and intrigue is what we watch baseball for, right? Let's just enjoy the World Series. Neither the Diamondbacks nor the Texas Rangers have been on baseball's biggest stage in a while. Good for them. I'm looking forward to watching.

Rangers slay Astros; Diamondbacks for Game 7

So, is it time to start talking about road-field advantage?

The Texas Rangers lost all three of their home games in the American League Championship Series, but they went 4-0 on the road. They knocked out the Houston Astros and advanced to the 2023 World Series with a 11-4 victory Monday night.

I have to admit, I wasn't feeling too good about Texas' chances after they lost Game 5 in dramatic fashion. Jose Altuve's 3-run homer in the ninth inning of that game lifted the Astros to a 5-4 win  -- and a 3-2 series lead.

But the Rangers answered big time as the series shifted back to Houston. They used a five-run ninth inning to blow open a tight game in Game 6, tying the series with a 9-2 victory. Adolis Garcia was 0 for 4 with four strikeouts until that ninth inning, when he delivered a grand slam that put the game out of reach.

Garcia continued his heroics in Game 7, going 4 for 5 with two homers and five RBIs. So, in his last six plate appearances of the series, he had five hits -- including three homers -- and nine RBIs. That's clutch.

Corey Seager and Nathaniel Lowe also homered for the Rangers in the deciding game. Texas scored three runs in the first inning, added one in the third and four in the fourth. The Rangers had an 8-2 lead by that point and never relinquished control.

Diamondbacks force NLCS Game 7

After the Philadelphia Phillies won Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, 10-0, I thought the Arizona Diamondbacks were dead.

I was wrong.

Arizona has since taken three of four games. The Diamondbacks tied the series at 3-all with a 5-1 victory in Philadelphia on Monday.

Phillies starter Aaron Nola had been 3-0 with a 0.96 ERA in these playoffs, but the Diamondbacks got to him for three runs in the second inning, highlighted by back-to-back home runs by Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

Arizona's Merrill Kelly tossed five innings of one-run ball, and four Diamondback relievers limited Philadelphia's offense to three singles over the last four innings. For a change, the Phillies did not homer, and that's the key to beating them -- keep them in the ballpark.

Game 7 is Tuesday night. Brandon Pfaadt is pitching for the Diamondbacks. The Phillies will counter with Ranger Suarez.

Philadelphia Phillies looking tough in NLCS

Anyone else feeling as though the Arizona Diamondbacks have run into a buzzsaw in the National League Championship Series?

The Diamondbacks have two quality starting pitchers in Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, and they had them lined up to pitch the first two games in Philadelphia against the Phillies.

The Phillies did not seem impressed. In Monday night's Game 1, Philadelphia hit three home runs in the first two innings off Gallen. Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos all went deep, and Gallen walked off the mound after five innings with his team trailing, 5-0.

The Diamondbacks, as they have done throughout the season, fought back with two runs in the sixth and one in the seventh, but the Phillies walked away with a 5-3 win.

Game 2 on Tuesday? It was no contest. 

Kelly didn't pitch poorly. He gave up only three hits over 5.2 innings, but the hits were all homers. Schwarber went deep twice, and Trea Turner homered in the first inning. And once Kelly left the game, Philadelphia absolutely pounded the Arizona bullpen and went on to an easy 10-0 victory.

The Phillies have two pretty good starters as well. Zack Wheeler pitched six innings of two-run ball to get the win in Game 1. Aaron Nola tossed six shutout innings to win Game 2.

I was thinking all along that the winner of the Division Series between Philadelphia and the Atlanta Braves would end up as the NL champion. The Phillies won that series, and now they head to Arizona up 2-0 in the NLCS.

The only saving grace for the Diamondbacks is they get to play at home now. However, they've already lost with their two best pitchers on the mound. They face a tough climb against a Philadelphia team that looks awesome right now.

Texas Rangers take 2-0 series lead in ALCS

Coming into the American League Championship Series, the Texas Rangers were 8-32 in their previous 40 games at Houston.

That doesn't matter much now, does it?

The Rangers won each of the first two games of the ALCS in Houston, beating the Astros, 2-0, on Sunday night and following it up with a 5-4 victory on Monday.

Texas left-hander Jordan Montgomery outpitched Houston ace Justin Verlander in Sunday's matchup. Montgomery tossed 6.1 shutout innings, while Verlander gave up two runs over 6.2 innings.

On Monday, the Rangers jumped on Houston starter Framber Valdez for four runs in the first inning, then held on for dear life in the late innings. 

Nathan Eovaldi improved to 3-0 in the playoffs. He gave up three runs over six innings, but his big achievement was pitching out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the bottom of the fifth. That was the moment you felt as though it was the Rangers' night.

Is it the Rangers' year? Well, they are 7-0 in the playoffs, including 6-0 on the road, and now they get to go home with a commanding lead in the ALCS. 

Texas beat the 101-win Baltimore Orioles in the Division Series as part of a remarkable group of upsets. The 90-win Philadelphia Phillies slayed the 104-win Atlanta Braves, while the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers.

It's been a crazy playoff year so far, and that's sparked some calls for changing the playoff format. Supposedly, the regular season has been "devalued" by these results.

Thing is, none of this is all that surprising. Baseball is unlike other sports in the sense that in a short series, a weaker team can beat a stronger team. It happens every week during the regular season, and we don't say a thing about it. When it happens in the playoffs, it's the end of the world.

Honestly, if you want to "reward the regular season," you can't have an expanded playoff. If you have 12 postseason teams, then every one of those 12 teams has at least a puncher's chance.

Right now, the Rangers are playing their best baseball, and they've got the defending champion Astros on the ropes.

Wild card round lacks drama, produces 4 sweeps

When the Tampa Bay Rays started 20-3, who would have thought their season was destined to end in the American League wild card round?

The Texas Rangers swept Tampa Bay in the best-of-three series this week, winning 4-0 on Tuesday and 7-1 on Wednesday.

It was one of four sweeps during the wild card round, but the Rays were probably the most disappointing quick exit of the four teams that lost.

Tampa Bay didn't really blow the AL East -- it won 99 games. You have to give credit to the Baltimore Orioles, who won 101 games and came from behind to take the division. 

That left the Rays matched up with the Rangers in the No. 4-vs.-No. 5 series. Granted, this is a very different Tampa Bay team than the one we saw in April. Starting pitchers Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs are all out for the season. The Rays were also missing their starting middle infield -- Wander Franco (administrative leave) and Brandon Lowe (leg injury).

However, it's still has to be considered a face-plant when a 99-win team gets outscored 11-1 on its home field during a playoff series. 

I'm envious of the Texas lineup -- Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Adolis Garcia -- these are star-level players, and I think you win with stars in the playoffs. I'm not sure the Rangers have enough pitching depth, starters or relievers, to beat the Orioles in the next round. However, that lineup gives them a chance.

The Rays weren't the only AL East wild card to exit early, as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Toronto Blue Jays by scores of 3-1 and 2-0.

Minnesota has two good starting pitchers in Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray, but the Toronto lineup was absolutely terrible with runners in scoring position in this series. The Blue Jays stranded 18 runners in the series, nine in each game.

For the Twins, this is their first playoff series win since 2002. They had lost 18 consecutive postseason games before they won Tuesday. Now, they've won two in a row. I guess they were due. Minnesota faces AL West champ Houston in the next round.

National League

No National League Central Division team has won a postseason series since 2019. In fact, Central Division clubs have lost 20 of their last 22 playoff games.

The 92-win Milwaukee Brewers added to that misery by getting swept in two games by the 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks. The Brewers had an early 3-0 lead Tuesday. They lost 6-3. The Brewers had an early 2-0 lead Wednesday. They lost 5-2. 

The Diamondbacks are an athletic team, good defensively, and they showed some power in this series. Corbin Carroll, Ketel Marte and Gabriel Moreno all homered off Milwaukee ace Corbin Burnes in Game 1. Alek Thomas started the Arizona comeback with a homer in Game 2.

Now the Diamondbacks will try their luck against the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

On the other side of the bracket, defending NL champion Philadelphia overwhelmed the Miami Marlins, defeating them 4-1 on Tuesday and 7-1 on Wednesday.

That sets up a rematch between the Phillies and the NL East champion Atlanta Braves. Atlanta won a MLB-best 104 wins in the regular season, but Philadelphia upset the Braves in this same round last season.

Without a doubt, Braves-Phillies is the series to watch in the days ahead. The general wisdom says the NL champion will be either the Braves or Dodgers, but the Phillies are the team best positioned to upset that line of thinking.

As I mentioned before, you win with stars in the playoffs, and Philadelphia has some great players -- Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, heck, you gotta throw Kyle Schwarber in there given the way he raises his level of play in the postseason. The Phillies have the stars to match the Braves' guys -- Ronald Acuna Jr., Matt Olson, Austin Riley, etc.

That series is going to come down to which stars on which team step forward. It should be better theater than this anticlimatic wild card round.

Thankfully, the 2023 season is over

 

Here's a photo of our group on the last day of the 2023 season at Guaranteed Rate Field. Pictured (from left) are me, Brian Alcock, Jen Bubis, Doug Braxton and Tom Braxton.

The Sox lost, 2-1, in 11 innings to the San Diego Padres, finishing the season at 61-101 -- the highest loss total in my lifetime. They celebrated "Fan Appreciation Day" by fielding a starting outfielder of Tyler Naquin, Trayce Thompson an Gavin Sheets.

Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, Eloy Jimenez and Andrew Benintendi did not play.

As has been the case all season, we were charged major league prices to watch a Triple-A caliber team.

The Sox should keep that in mind next time they question fan loyalty, which they inevitably will.