Are You Not Entertained?

This newsletter is free because I published my World Series X-Factors newsletter yesterday for paid subscribers in lieu of the usual Friday Free For All.

Also, OH MY GOD GAME 1.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Corey Seager. Game tying 2-run home run off D’Backs closer Paul Sewald in the bottom of the 9th.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Jose Leclerc. Two scoreless innings pitched in the 10th and the 11th to keep the game tied 5-5.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Adolis Garcia. Hit by a pitch right after Seager’s game-tying home run. Then a walk- off home run in the bottom of the 11th. Garcia’s revenge game is elite. Elite.

After all the moaning about a World Series featuring the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers, we were treated to a classic that will go down in history as one of the best World Series games of all time.

Arizona starter Zac Gallen bent but did not break. He gave up 2 runs in the first inning and allowed the Rangers to tie the game on a bases-loaded walk in the fourth. But after that Gallen shut down the Rangers and left the game after 5 innings with the D’Backs up 5-3.

Nathan Eovaldi’s start was the stuff of Bruce Bochy’s nightmares. Big Game Nate didn’t pitch deep in the game (he went only 4 2/3) and he gave up 5 runs on 6 hits. We all know Bochy was hoping for at least 7 strong innings from Eovaldi, if not 8, given the precarious nature of the Rangers bullpen.

Then something amazing happened.

The Rangers bullpen pitched 6 1/3 innings and didn’t allow a run. Zero. Zilch. Dane Dunning, Cody Bradford, Jon Gray, Will Smith, and Jose Leclerc shut the D’Backs down after they rocked Eovaldi.

Jon Gray? The Rangers starting pitcher posted a 3.29 ERA in the first half of the season but a 5.32 ERA in the second half. Then he went on the injured list at the end of September with forearm tightness. Texas left him off the Wild Card and Division Series roster and he pitched only 1 inning in the ALCS.

Jon Gray was lights out. He kept the Rangers in the game and gave Corey Seager a chance to do what he did and Adolis Garcia to do what he did. And now Bruce Bochy has another option that he wasn’t sure he had. Gray could be a Game 4 starter. He could be a long guy out the ‘pen. The Rangers look even stronger now that they have an effective Jon Gray to deploy.

I can’t wait for Game 2.

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