World Series Game 2: Arizona Diamondbacks v Texas Rangers – live | MLB

Diamondbacks 2-0 Rangers, top 5th

Carroll is up and on a 1-1 pitch he swings and misses at Montgomery’s changeup, just the second he’s gotten this outing. 1-2. Carroll fouls the next pitch off. Still, 1-2. Montgomery throws high for a pitch-out but they don’t get Perdomo who steals second on the play. 2-2. The next pitch? That bounces. 3-2. Runner on second with two outs.

We get a meeting on the mound, Montgomery wants to at least limit this two a two-run deficit here, especially given how Kelly is pitching. After a few more delays, Carroll fouls out to third to end the inning. We are now officially halfway through regulation, but that doesn’t mean that we’re necessarily halfway through Game 2. To the bottom of the fifth!

Diamondbacks 2-0 Rangers, top 5th

Perdomo is out there and he takes a strike looking and then fouls off the next pitch. 0-2. He takes a curve in the dirt, clearly checking his swing. 1-2. He fouls off the next pitch. Still 1-2. He takes a high pitch out of the zone. 2-2. On the next pitch, he knocks in a single. That’s one on and one out.

Marte is up next and he pops up on one pitch. So make that one on, two out.

Diamondbacks 2-0 Rangers, top 5th

Montgomery falls behind Longoria 3-0. I wonder if he will bunt here? He takes the get-on-over automatic strike instead. 3-1. On the next pitch he reaches out and hits a low slider that’s going to be a groundball out every time.

Diamondbacks 2-0 Rangers, bottom 4th

Evan Carter gets the Rangers’ first hit! It’s a single that falls into no man’s land in the outfield. Up comes García, who can quickly tie this game on one swing.

Instead he flies out on two pitches. Kelly has thrown just 43 pitches, which is exactly what Arizona needs after the 11-inning extravaganza in Game 1. FOX goes to commercial to the tune of the Grateful Dead’s “Estimated Prophet” as we head to the fifth inning.

Diamondbacks 2-0 Rangers, bottom 4th

Kelly, who has been pitching a gem, has now been staked a lead. He gets Semien to fly out to left on two pitches and Seagar to line out to Thomas on one pitch.

What’s going wrong with Montgomery, well he’s literally not missing any bats, that’s usually the recipe for disaster against a talented team.

Diamondbacks 2-0 Rangers, top 4th

Alek Thomas is up with a runner on first base and two down. He takes a curve for a ball. 1-0. He takes a strike 1-1. Thomas grounds out on the next pitch, but the Diamondbacks have taken another two-run lead on the Rangers. To the bottom of the fourth!

Run-scoring single! (Gurriel Jr) Diamondbacks 2-0 Rangers

Diamondbacks 1-0 Rangers, top 4th

Jung’s play ends up being key because Pham hits a double at the very next at-bat. That might have saved a run there. In any case, now a runner on second with still two out.

Diamondbacks 1-0 Rangers, top 4th

Christian Walker hits what seems to be a clear base hit but Jung manages to throw him out from third base for the second out of the inning.

Home run! (Moreno) Diamondbacks 1-0 Rangers

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, top 4th

Carroll faces Montgomery to start the fourth and he pops out to centerfield where Seagar makes an effortless looking catch.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, bottom 3rd

Two down, bases empty. Leody Taveras is up and he’s down on three pitches. This one’s moving at a much quicker pace than yesterday’s game so far. Onto the fourth inning!

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, bottom 3rd

Josh Jung works a full count against Kelly, who keeps mixing up his pitches in a way that seems to be confounding the Rangers early. Jung’s at-bat ends with yet another groundball out, this one to short. Kelly’s only at 33 pitches too.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, bottom 3rd

Nathaniel Lowe is out there against Kelly, who falls behind 2-1 before getting Lowe to foul off a few balls and then gaze at strike three.

Furthermore…

If you’re wondering why the Diamondbacks brand of baseball frustrates me as someone who spent the 2010s hanging out with the SABR crowd, that last half-inning sums it up.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, top 3rd

Marte is back up and he flies out to center and the Diamondbacks fail to capitalize on getting a zero-out baserunner, mostly due to really bad situational hitting.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, top 3rd

Geraldo Perdomo, the guy that you would want sacrificing, is up next. He falls behind 0-2 before taking a pitch. He grounds out to short, moving Thomas to third but now there’s two down so he can’t score on an out.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, top 3rd

And Evan Longoria hits a sacrifice bunt here for some reason? I don’t get it at all unless he was trying for a base hit and bungled it. (And that also would be a bad idea!) In any case, it gets Thomas to second but there’s one away now.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, top 3rd

Alek Thomas is up to face Montgomery and he immediately hits a single on the first pitch he sees. So, the Diamondbacks have one on and nobody out.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, bottom 2nd

Mitch Garver is up next for the Rangers and he immediately falls behind 0-2. Kelly throws another one of those low sliders out of the zone, but Garver doesn’t chase. He does, however, pop out to third on the next pitch. The hitters look tired on both sides, like they’re still recovering from Game 1.

Just like that, Jonah Heim hits a long flyball to end the inning. To the third!

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, bottom 2nd

Adolis García leads off the bottom of the second, which is honestly where you want him as a pitcher rather than being at the plate with runners on base. Kelly gets him to ground out on two pitches which he has to feel good about.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, top 2nd

Pham is there for only a split second as Lourdes Gurriel Jr. immediately hits into a double play, so Montgomery has still faced the minimum after two.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, top 2nd

Christian Walker grounds out on two pitches. Immediately afterwards, it looks like Tommy Pham does the same but he beats it out for an infield single for the game’s first baserunner. The Diamondbacks absolutely love running out groundballs for singles.

Email from Ian Jefferson:

Regarding your prediction. What would Roy Kent say…

We just don’t know. We’re not the ones out there.

That’s the cleanest paraphrase I could come up with.

I appreciate the email but I’m going to admit that I had to Google this reference! I’m sorry, when it comes to TV from ex-SNL actors, I’m very much a “Barry” person and not a “Ted Lasso” person.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, bottom 1st

Evan Carter, who has literally been on base every game this postseason, is up next. He takes a strike, then a ball. He gets jammed on the next pitch, a cutter, and hits it foul. On the next pitch he takes strike three. That’s a 1-2-3 inning for both starting pitchers.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, bottom 1st

Corey Seager pops up to short on two pitches for out number two.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, bottom 1st

Merrill Kelly is out now, pitching to Rangers leadoff man Marcus Semien. Kelly’s first pitch is a low strike. 0-1. On the next pitch, Kelly throws a cutter that Semien can’t connect with. Next, Kelly shows off a slider but it’s out of the zone. 1-2. Next up? A sinker that is way off the corner of the plate. He’s showing off his arsenal early.

Semien fouls off two changeups before finally striking out on a slider that was also out of the zone. It’s the first out of the inning.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, top 1st

Gabriel Moreno is up next and gets ahead of the count 3-1 before fouling two itches off and then popping up a very tall popup to centerfield to end the top of the first inning.

Diamondbacks 0-0 Rangers, top 1st

Next up is Corbin Carroll, who gets ahead of the count 2-1. Carroll fouls the next pitch off and then takes a ball to work a full count. This is more what the Diamondbacks want early on: make Montgomery throw a lot of pitches and get to the bullpen once again.

On pitch six, Carroll grounds out to second.

First pitch

We’re getting close to opening pitch! It’s supposed to be right now, but (as mentioned earlier) there’s television stuff that needs to be done first.

Now here comes the part where John Smoltz starts talking on the FOX broadcast and I desperately hope his pregame analysis does not resemble mine in the slightest.

National anthem

Young singer Pearle Peterson, representing the Boys & Girls Club of America, gives her performance of “The Star Spangled Banner.” She’s really good too, which is helpful because I would have felt like a jerk panning a random teenage girl! 8/10.

Predictions

Previously, I said this World Series would last six or seven games. The easily way to ensure a long series is for it to start 1-1, so for that reason alone I’m pretty much locked into the Diamondbacks shaking off yesterday’s late-inning collapse and evening the series up tonight.

I can justify this choice, however! The Rangers bullpen did a fantastic job yesterday in keeping the Diamondbacks scoreless after Nathan Eovaldi uncharacteristically failed to get through five innings. However, it also means that they’ve already been overworked.

Should Montgomery also fail to give the team a long outing, Arizona can take advantage of the situation and hope that the Rangers bullpen regresses to the man in Game 2. I’m going to guess this ends with a score like Diamondbacks 6-2 Rangers.

Agree? Disagree? As always, we welcome your predictions. Feel free to send them here via email (to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com) or via The Website I Refuse To Call X (to @HunterFelt). We’ll include your thoughts as we go along.

Rangers starting lineup

1. Marcus Semien, 2B

2. Corey Seager, SS

3. Evan Carter, LF

4. Adolis García, RF

5. Mitch Garver, DH

6. Jonah Heim, C

7. Nathaniel Lowe, 1B

8. Josh Jung, 3B

9. Leody Taveras, CF

Starting pitcher: Jordan Montgomery.

Meanwhile, the Rangers are sticking with their Game 1 lineup card. Manager Bruce Bochy is not messing with success.

Diamondbacks starting lineup.

1. Ketel Marte, 2B

2. Corbin Carroll, RF

3. Gabriel Moreno, C

4. Christian Walker, 1B

5. Tommy Pham, DH

6. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., LF

7. Alek Thomas, CF

8. Evan Longoria, 3B

9. Geraldo Perdomo, SS

Starting pitcher: Merrill Kelly

The only switch here is that with a lefty on the mound for Texas, the Diamondbacks have swapped Marte and Carroll at the top of the lineup.

Adolis García

Well, if this series didn’t have any star players before Game 1, it feels like it does now. Aldois García has gone from a player that the St Louis Cardinals ended up trading in exchange for cash considerations. How good is he? Good enough that The Onion felt obliged to honor him with jokes about him hitting three home runs on a single hit.

The Astros thought they had figured García out in Game 6, striking him out four straight times. It didn’t matter, he came out and hit a grand slam. The ALCS MVP racked up 15 RBI against Houston alone, a big reason that he was able to set the postseason RBI record just a game into this World Series.

Preamble

Has everybody recovered from yesterday’s 11-inning marathon? The Arizona Diamondbacks looked as if they were in control for most of the game until the Texas Rangers’ Corey Seager hit a game-tying double in the bottom of the ninth against Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald.

It was a shocking moment. What was less shocking was who ended the thriller in extra innings. Adolis García’s walk-off home run not only put the Rangers up 1-0 in the World Series, he set a postseason RBI record in the process. Plus, he still has at least three more games to pad his stats.

The Rangers are now on top but they still have three more games against a very resilient opponent. This is an Arizona team that just came back from a 0-2 deficit in the NLCS to defeat the favored Philadelphia Phillies so a 0-1 deficit is nothing. Recent history suggests that there are more twists and turns to follow.

It feels amusing that the narrative heading into this series was that it wasn’t going to be interesting because the “wrong” teams had made it to the final round. As I wrote in yesterday’s liveblog, that wouldn’t necessarily be the case: “If you put two teams together and force them to play four to seven games, storylines will emerge! Sports are narrative-creating machines and drama can emerge out of nowhere.”

This was, in part, a prayer for Baseball Gods that we would get a competitive series. The back-and-forth rhythms of Game 1 suggest that my prayers may have been answered.

We’ll see how things go in Game 2. Today, the Diamondbacks are starting righthander Merrill Kelly (2-1, 2.65 ERA this postseason) while the Rangers will be starting lefthander Jordan Montgomery (3-0, 2.16 ERA). It’s hard to imagine that the two teams will combine for a more entertaining battle than the one we witnessed yesterday, but it should be fun to watch them try.

If you want to contribute to today’s blog, you can do so by sending your questions or comments to us via email (to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com) or via Twitter (to @HunterFelt). It’s Game 2 of the 2023 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers at Arlington’s Globe Life Field! Opening pitch is scheduled to start at 8:03 pm EST but we’ll be back with starting lineups, predictions and random commentary well before then.

Hunter will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Tom Dart’s look back from a thrilling Game 1 at Arlington’s Globe Life Field.