World Series Game 5: Texas Rangers v Arizona Diamondbacks – live

Rangers lead Diamondbacks in best-of-seven series 3-1Email David with your thoughts or tweet @LengelDavid

Hi folks, welcome to our coverage of Game 5 of the 2023 World Series! There are quite a few questions to be answered tonight, the most important being: will the Texas Rangers be flying home after the game for the very first title celebration in the history of the franchise? Or instead, gearing up for a Globe Life Field Game 6 v Arizona on Friday.

Fans of the Rangers, who have been waiting since 1972 for that elusive World Series championship, would presumably like to wrap it up tonight, since many of their loyals are still smarting from 2011 when they came within a single strike of winning it all v St Louis before their epic collapse. Overall, it’s been a 62-year title drought, going back to the franchises first season in 1961 when they were the Washington Senators. That dryspell ranks second only to Cleveland, who hasn’t popped a Fall Classic cork since way back in 1948. So there is history to be made, and the chances are Texas will make it, and if not tonight, soon enough. Teams with a 3-1 World Series lead have won 85.7% of the time. The last team to upend the trend was the 2016 Chicago Cubs, who broke their drought of over 100 years by famously turning the tables on Cleveland.