With a decisive 11-4 blowout of the Houston Astros on Monday night in Game 7 of the ALCS, the Texas Rangers are headed back to the World Series for the first time in a dozen years.
Still undefeated on the road during this 2023 MLB postseason, the Rangers got another pair of home runs and five runs batted in from Adolis Garcia, who went deep for the fourth straight game and set a new record for RBI in a postseason (15) en route to winning ALCS MVP.
Texas manager Bruce Bochy also set a new MLB record by becoming the first skipper to win a League Championship Series with three different teams. Bochy previously led the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants to the World Series, winning three with the latter.
With the reigning champs now in the rearview, the Rangers are all set to make their third-ever appearance in the Fall Classic. And no matter who wins Tuesday night's NLCS Game 7 between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies, Texas will host Game 1 of the 2023 World Series on Friday night.
Why do the Texas Rangers have home-field advantage in the World Series?
After far too many years of World Series home-field advantage being decided by the winner of the MLB All-Star Game, the format was changed in 2017 to reward the team with the better regular-season record.
The Rangers, of course, went 90-72 this season, giving them a six-game advantage over the Diamondbacks, who went 84-78.
Philadelphia, however, finished with the same 90-72 mark as Texas. But even if the Phillies win Tuesday night, they'd be the visiting team in Game 1 come Friday.
The first tiebreaker to determine home-field advantage in the World Series is head-to-head record. The Rangers won all three of their games against the Phillies this season. Believe it or not, that was the opening series of the 2023 MLB season for both teams.
So it might just be fitting if the Rangers and Phillies closed out the season against one another as well.
