For the second year in a row, a manager rather than a player was the center of attention at the end of a Major League Baseball (MLB) season .Last year, the story of former manager Dusty Baker, who led the Houston Astros to a World Series title and earned his first championship ring in 25 years as a big league manager, dominated the headlines. This year, it’s Bruce Bochy, 68, who led the Texas Rangers to their first World Series title in 62 years .Bochy’s Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 on Sunday to improve to 4-1 in the series and reach the top of the World Series for the first time since the franchise was founded in 1961.Bochy won a World Series ring for the fourth time in his career, after managing the San Francisco Giants in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
He is tied with former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Walter Alston for the most World Series wins .Only three managers from the Yankees’ glory days have won more: former manager Casey Stengel-Joe McCarthy (seven more) and former Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack (five).Joining these legends, Bochy became a champion for the first time when he defeated Texas in the 2010 World Series. Texas’ best years in franchise history were 2010 and 2011, when they won back-to-back American League titles. However, they were swept by the San Francisco and St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. This year, after winning the American League pennant for the third time in 12 years, Bochy, who came up short in his first attempt at the title, is now the manager of the Texas Rangers, and he’ll be able to fulfill his desire to win the franchise’s first championship.
Bochy, who stepped down as San Francisco’s manager at the end of 2019 and returned to the wilderness after a four-year absence as the 29th manager of Texas, proved his nickname as the fall guy by winning immediately upon his return .Bochy faced a number of challenges in the regular season, including elbow surgery for ace Jacob deGrom, a sore thigh for World Series MVP Corey Seager, and frequent absences due to finger injuries. After narrowly missing out on the second American League wild-card spot and advancing to the postseason as the No. 5 seed, Bochy turned to an unorthodox short-rotation mound game. In the 2014 World Series against the Kansas City Royals, he brought in Game 5 winner Madison Bumgarner in the fifth inning of Game 7 with a 3-2 lead to record a five-inning save and win the title.
Breaking the mold, Bochy often uses his starters in the bullpen. Starter Jon Gray has come out of the bullpen three times this postseason .Korean-American right-hander Dane Dunning also made five appearances out of the bullpen in the fall, and left-hander Andrew Heaney split time between starting and the bullpen .Maybe it’s because they’ve been blessed with a strong competitor’s chi in the fall, but even mediocre Texas bullpen pitchers have been able to use the Force .Despite his “old school” style, Bochy is quick to make pitching changes based on head-to-head performance .In 26 years, Bochy’s regular-season winning percentage of .499 is less than 5%, but his postseason winning percentage is over 6%.In particular, he’s an impressive 6-0 in winner-take-all games, which means winning the final game of a series.
Despite his veteran emphasis, Bochy also has a penchant for restructuring, as evidenced by his use of rookies Josh Young and Evan Carter. If he’s got a big-game player, he’s got a big-game coach. Arizona manager Torey Rubello showed his respect for Bochy, telling CBS Sports, “He’s a phenomenal coach, and just to be able to stand with him as a 무료슬롯게임 manager in the World Series is an honor.”