World Series: 4 Things the Texas Rangers must do to beat Arizona

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The Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks are preparing to engage in the most unlikely World Series matchup since the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins squared off in 1991. The Braves and Twins both went from last in their division in 1990 to the World Series in 1991. Texas in 2022 was fourth in the AL West and Arizona was fourth in the NL West. Now they are both getting ready to play for the championship. It really is a close matchup despite what their records and run differentials might say. Texas is still the favorite to win the series, but with just a few breaks Arizona can absolutely pull off the upset and extend Texas' championship drought. If Texas does these four things they will have a great chance to pop champagne one more time.

How can Texas win the World Series?

#1 Control Arizona's running game

This is not a football game breakdown between the Cowboys and Cardinals. Arizona is a team that relies on its ability to play small ball. One aspect of that is stealing bases. They love to run when they reach first base. They were second in all of baseball in stolen bases with 166. They were led by left fielder Corbin Carroll who had 54 on the season. If the runner can reach second safely the Diamondbacks are very good about getting hits and driving them in.

The responsibility to control the running game will not only fall to catcher Jonah Heim, but also every pitcher who comes into the game. The pitchers will have to be quicker to the plate to give Heim a shot to throw out any runners who do try to steal second or even third. Heim has to be accurate on his throws. Texas cannot afford for Heim to airmail second and give the Diamondback base runners third. That will almost always lead to a run being scored.

#2 Keep Corbin Carroll in check

The rookie phenom is the engine for this Diamonbacks team. As he goes so goes the Diamondbacks offense. He led the team in hits, doubles, triples, and was second in home runs. He also had the highest OPS among qualified players. He was their best all-around player and he is just a rookie. Just an amazing season for a player that is likely to win the NL Rookie of the Year award next month.

Texas will need to really have a good game plan for Carroll. He excels against velocity. Fastballs and anything thrown hard does not really give him any issues. He does struggle against offspeed pitches. Slurves, changeups, cutters, and curveballs all gave him troubles this season. Against offspeed pitches he had a .238 batting average, and whiffed 22% of the time against those pitches. It seems tailor-made for Nathan Eovaldi in game one to be able to have success. It is not just about game one though.

The second thing with Carroll is to stay ahead in the count. If he is behind in the count he tends to either strike out and get put out. In 2023 when he fell behind in the count 1-2 he struck out 70 times and only worked a walk twice. In counts where he falls behind he has a .205 batting average. The worst thing a pitcher can do against Carroll is to pitch him timidly and let him get ahead. Challenge him with first pitch strikes, get ahead, and then get him out. He is still a rookie that is still learning.

If Texas can limit what Carroll then it will go a long way towards also limiting what Arizona can do and how many runs they can score. He is obviously not their only weapon, but limit Carroll and everyone else becomes less threatening.

#3 Make quality pitches till the final out of the game

One of Arizona's coaches is Jeff Banister. That name should sound familiar to Texas Rangers' fans. He was the manager of this team from 2015-2018. He led Texas to consecutive division titles in 2015 and 2016. He was the AL Manager of the year in 2015. One of his sayings that became the idenity of the team was "Never Ever Quit". That was his mantra and it became the team's attitude in every game. That is one of the reasons why the 2016 Texas Rangers had the best record in the American League and yet one of the lowest run differentials.

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He has taken that mantra to Arizona as part of Torey Luvullo's staff. That Arizona team was fourth in the majors in come-from-behind wins with 43. They had five ninth inning comebacks. For Texas this will be similar to their series against Baltimore who led the league in come-from-behind wins with 48. The Diamondbacks will look to really put pressure on a thin Rangers' bullpen and try to steal a win or two against Josh Sborz, Aroldis Chapman, or Jose Leclerc. It will be on those pitchers to make quality pitches and get important outs. The turning point in the NLCS was probably Arizona's walk off win in game four. That gave the Diamondbacks belief that they could win the series. If Arizona can steal a win in the World Series it could have the same effect.

#4 Texas' offense has to be productive against both starting pitchers and relievers

There are a lot of matchup breakdowns throughout the internet about this series currently. People are looking for micro edges each team might have. In my opinion this series will come down to can Texas put runs up against the Diamondbacks pitching staff? In the last two games of the ALCS Texas put a combined 20 runs on the board. Texas has shown the ability to be productive against a variety of pitchers throughout this postseason. Texas has seen every starter Arizona will likely deploy in this series. If Texas averages more than five runs per game Texas will win this series.

The reason why Arizona is here in the first place is the Phillies stopped hitting. They scored on run in game six and two runs in game seven. Arizona will not be able to keep up with a productive Texas lineup. Arizona's hope in this series is that Texas' bats go cold much like the Phillies' bats did. This could be a very short series if Texas gets better production from the top of their lineup. If Semien and Seager are consistently getting on-base it will potentially be a four or five game series.

Texas does need to slow down the running game, corral Corbin Carroll, and play till the final out is recorded. None of that will matter if the offense is putting up a lot of runs. If Texas is doing that then Arizona will be losing these games by a few runs each night.. I think Texas will have some issues at times in this series. The offense favors Texas, the starting pitching matchups favor Texas, and the only advantage Arizona has is in the bullpen. It should be a nice matchup of contrasting styles. The talking is now over and it is time to play ball.

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