Does History Put Texas Rangers in Driving Seat After Winning World Series Opener?

The Game 1 winner has won the World Series more than 60% of the time in MLB history. Texas leads the best-of-seven 1-0 over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers escaped with a dramatic World Series Game 1 win Friday night.

The 6-5 walk-off comeback win in 11 innings will live forever in the dreams of Rangers fans and haunt the nightmares of Arizona Diamondbacks fans.

Corey Seager's game-tying, two-run homer in the ninth sent it to extra innings and Adolis Garcia's walk-off homer in the 11th won it.

How important is winning Game 1 of the World Series?

The Game 1 winner has won the championship 62.7% of the time. That's 74 times out of 118 Fall Classics.

BOMBI CALLS GAME!!! pic.twitter.com/fhVZgXzEuf

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) October 28, 2023

That trend is especially true in recent years. The Game 1 winner has won the Series in 21 of the past 25 seasons. 

The exceptions since 1997? The Los Angeles Angels in 2002, New York Yankees in 2009, Chicago Cubs in 2016, and Houston Astros in 2017 and 2022.

Of those five Game 1 losses for eventual World Series champions, three came at home (2002 Angels, 2009 Yankees and 2022 Astros), and two came on the road (2016 Cubs and 2017 Astros).

The Rangers won a World Series opener for the first time. They lost at San Francisco 11-7 in 2010 and lost 3-2 at St. Louis in 2011.

Friday's World Series Game 1 is the 17th time a World Series game ended with a walk-off home run and the 62nd World Series game to end on a walk-off plate appearance.

Seager Making Rangers History in World Series

You can follow Stefan Stevenson on Twitter @StefanVersusTex.

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