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PHOENIX -- If the regular-season version of Corey Seager is firmly established as one of the game's best players, the playoff version is fast becoming a postseason legend.

The Rangers' star shortstop was named World Series MVP for the second time in his career Wednesday as Texas closed out the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 in Game 5 for its first World Series crown.

Seager led the way, bashing three homers and driving in six during the five games and posting a 1.137 OPS. He started the Rangers' go-ahead rally in the clincher with a seventh-inning single to break up a no-hit bid from Arizona's Zac Gallen, then scored the game's first run.

The honor was a fitting one for Seager and the Rangers. It was his decision to sign a 10-year, $325 million deal with Texas before the 2022 season that helped kick the Rangers' turnaround into high gear.

"It truly is incredible," Seager said after the game, deflecting praise away from himself as usual. "But it's not just me, man. What this team did and how we competed and all the guys in there rallying, we don't really have one leader. That whole clubhouse is the leadership."

Seager also was the MVP of the 2020 World Series when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is just the fourth player to win multiple World Series MVP trophies since the award was first given out in 1955, joining Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson. He is just the second player to win the award for two different teams, along with Jackson (Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees).

"I don't think you can ever fathom that," Seager said. "It's a pretty special group to be part of."

The Fall Classic is another item on Seager's burgeoning postseason résumé. He also was MVP of the 2020 National League Championship Series and has a .858 career playoff OPS with 19 homers and 48 RBIs in 78 games. His six homers in 18 career World Series games are twice as many as any other shortstop.

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PHOENIX -- Travis Jankowski is a long-haired, kinda-Spicolli-looking font of wisdom, the sort of guy who understands the soul of a baseball team because he spends more time observing than participating. When he signed a one-year, $1.25 million contract this spring with the Rangers, he expected to do what he'd spent most of his nine-year career doing: bringing some speed, some plate discipline and some good vibes. He did not expect to help save their season.

The first time it happened was April 12, when the Rangers' all-everything shortstop, Corey Seager, hit the injured list with a strained hamstring. Some shuffling opened up an outfield spot for Jankowski, who spent most of his time in Seager's No. 2 hole in the lineup. In the five weeks before Seager returned, all the Rangers did was lead Major League Baseball in runs scored.

On Tuesday, about an hour before Game 4 of the World Series, the Rangers announced that Adolis Garcia and Max Scherzer -- their hottest hitter and erstwhile ace -- would miss the remainder of the series with injuries. Jankowski would replace Garcia -- ALCS MVP, Game 1 walk-off-homer author -- in right field and slot in at the bottom of their lineup.

"When you've been through this, it's a little easier," Jankowski said. "We could've folded. That's not us. I think everyone knows that by now."

That much is clear after Game 4. The Rangers did the folding, shellacking the Arizona Diamondbacks in the early innings and weathering a tepid late rally to secure an 11-7 victory and move themselves to within one game of a World Series title. As much as was made of the losses of Garcia and Scherzer before Game 4, it was easy to forget the Rangers learned about the frailty of the human body and the strength of the human mind long before they were on the verge of winning their first World Series in 63 years of existence.

The domino effect from Seager's injury -- and the season-ending elbow surgery for ace Jacob deGrom and the dings that kept catcher Jonah Heim and third baseman Josh Jung and even Garcia out for extended periods during the regular season -- fully prepared Texas for this. What their bodies lacked in any particular moment they made up for with an attitude that never leaned into any woe-is-me rhetoric.

The Rangers prefer whoa-is-me. And on the night that Seager hit another momentous and monumental home run to continue his postseason mastery, a night in which his keystone partner, Marcus Semien, busted out of a slump with a two-run triple and three-run homer in back-to-back innings, Jankowski did what he showed himself capable of in April. In the second inning, he feathered a single up the middle to keep the inning going. He followed the next inning with a bases-loaded double that scored a pair of runs and extended Texas' lead to 7-0 -- one that would grow to 10-0 one Semien swing later.

The Rangers are on the verge of winning the World Series because of this unrelenting offense that, after staying relatively quiet in the first three games of the series, feasted on Arizona's bullpen. In the second and third innings, the Rangers put up five runs with two outs. A five-run inning in the World Series is uncommon. Back-to-back five-run innings never had happened. Consecutive five-run innings, all with two outs, probably never will happen again.

Texas understood that in order to feast, it needed to stop offering at the Diamondbacks' bad pitches and maraud the good ones. After chasing on nearly 27% of Arizona's pitches in the first three games, the Rangers cut that to 19.1% in Game 4. And with the Diamondbacks throwing significantly more pitches in the strike zone, Texas' offense -- which led MLB with 26 innings of five or more runs during the regular season -- found itself.

"They don't get swing happy," Rangers hitting coach Tim Hyers said. "They stick to a plan. That's what gives you competitive at-bats one after the other. But I think it starts with a good plan, but it also starts with they just don't expand that much whenever they get the ball rolling."

This wasn't a ball. It was a boulder. Because this is how this Rangers offense has operated not just since the beginning of the postseason but the beginning of the season. The Rangers swing with the impertinence of Bamm-Bamm Rubble and the patience of a preschool teacher, marrying these divergent concepts and riding them to the verge of history. Texas' 881 runs led the American League, and navigating this lineup, even without Garcia, is rife with peril.

"Think about it," said Nate Lowe, the Rangers' first baseman, who broke down the Rangers' lineup in very simple terms:

"We have two MVP types hitting 1-2." (Seager and Semien.)

"We had a playoff MVP cleaning up." (Garcia.)

"We have an MVP-ceiling kid who's stepping in to hit third." (Evan Carter, who was in Double-A for almost the entirety of the season.)

"We have a Silver Slugger hitting fifth." (DH Mitch Garver)

"The starting All-Star third baseman hitting sixth." (Jung, whose three hits in Game 4 led Texas.)

"Another Silver Slugger hitting seventh." (Lowe pointed to himself.)

"And then the All-Star starter at catcher hitting eight." (Jonah Heim, whose eighth-inning home run Tuesday added Texas' 11th run.)

"And a very quality leadoff hitter for arguably 29 other teams hitting ninth for us." (Leody Taveras, whose walk against Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald in Game 1 set up Seager's epic game-tying ninth-inning home run.)

"So, yeah," Lowe said, "when you spell it all out like that, it's pretty easy to relieve pressure on one bat to know that there are eight others, and two or three other bench bats" -- Jankowski, Robbie Grossman, Ezequiel Duran, Austin Hedges -- "that are ready to come in."

Which is why the Rangers offense, better than most, can weather the loss of a hitter even of Garcia's quality. When they are not doing well, they're still better than most, and when they are locked in, it is baseball in god mode. The Rangers got healthy before the postseason, and until Scherzer hobbled off the mound in Game 3 with a locked-up back and Garcia grabbed at his oblique in the eighth inning, they'd shown that the team that sprinted to the American League West lead -- before those injuries hit, causing that lead to evaporate and almost costing them a postseason spot -- still lived somewhere in that clubhouse.

Game 4 unleashed god mode again, and they clowned the Diamondbacks in the same way Arizona has those who dared to doubt them. Though the Diamondbacks walked here in glass slippers, only a fool would suggest they're done. The Philadelphia Phillies made that mistake and are now watching the World Series on TV.

Besides, these are the Texas Rangers, among the most woebegone franchises in professional sports. They've either been bad or sad. The awfulness is pervasive. The melancholy is particularly acute, aged a dozen years, when they were one strike from winning the World Series.

This is a new team, though, a new era, with a new manager in Bruce Bochy, who has three rings, and a new franchise player in Seager, who's got one, and a new appreciation for what all of the injuries taught them. And it doesn't hurt to know that only six of 47 teams facing 3-1 World Series deficits have recovered to win.

The Rangers are not what they are -- they are not here -- without April and May giving them the opportunity to find out they can be just as good without even someone who feels integral to their success.

"That, to me, is kind of the motto of our team," Jankowski said. "We got some boppers in the lineup, but we can't rely on them all the time. It's baseball. Crazy stuff happens. We need a team unit to win this whole thing. And that's what I was in awe of."

Rangers fans will finally get to experience something that was just a dream for decades: a World Series championship parade.

Details: The parade starts at 12:15pm Friday at Supra Lot A along Cowboys Way in Arlington and will circle clockwise along AT&T Way, Nolan Ryan Expressway and Stadium Drive, ending back on Cowboys Way.

What to expect: Rangers players, Arlington Mayor Jim Ross, police and fire officials and Arlington City Council members are expected to participate in the parade, along with school marching bands.

If you go: A parade viewing area will be set up between Globe Life Field and Choctaw Stadium, east of Texas Live!

Pro tip: Check Arlington's parade website to plan your visit. Arrive early, expect large crowds and keep that road rage in check.

If you can't go: Bally Sports Southwest will broadcast the parade and ceremony, per Arlington officials. Look out for livestreams and broadcasts by the local TV stations.

What they're saying: "The Texas Rangers' World Series victory is a dream five decades in the making," Arlington Mayor Jim Ross said in a statement.

Meanwhile: Several North Texas school districts, including Arlington ISD, Irving ISD and Mansfield ISD, canceled Friday classes so students and staff can attend the parade.

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The Texas Rangers have never won the World Series. That could change tonight.

After a Game 4 romping of the Arizona Diamondbacks -- in which Texas was ahead 10-0 at the end of the third inning -- the Rangers hold a commanding 3-1 lead in the 2023 Fall Classic entering Game 5 at Phoenix's Chase Field on Wednesday night.

We'll have all the action from the potential Series-clinching contest, from lineups to live updates and analysis during the game to takeaways and more after the final pitch.

Key links: Full playoffs schedule and results

The matchup

Texas Rangers (Nathan Eovaldi) at Arizona Diamondbacks (Zac Gallen), 8:03 p.m. ET on Fox

Lineups

Rangers

Marcus Semien (R) 2B Corey Seager (L) SS Evan Carter (L) LF Mitch Garver (R) DH Josh Jung (R) 3B Nathaniel Lowe (L) 1B Jonah Heim (S) C Leody Taveras (S) CF Travis Jankowski (L) RF

Diamondbacks

Corbin Carroll (L) RF Ketel Marte (S) 2B Gabriel Moreno (R) C Christian Walker (R) 1B Tommy Pham (R) DH Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (R) LF Alek Thomas (L) CF Evan Longoria (R) 3B Geraldo Perdomo (S) SS

Live updates

PHOENIX -- There are all sorts of ways to contextualize what made this World Series title for the Texas Rangers so special.

For starters, they were one of just six franchises who had never won a World Series, and of those six, they have been around longest, if you include their years as the Washington Senators, where they began in 1961. (They moved to Texas in '72.)

But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Rangers' run to the title that ended with Wednesday's 5-0 win over the D-backs in Game 5 was their unblemished road record.

That's right: The Rangers played 11 road games this postseason and did not lose a single one. Prior to this season, the best road record in a single postseason was 8-0 by the 1996 Yankees.

Here's a deeper look at the remarkable road work by the Rangers and other amazing numbers that contributed to their first World Series title.

1. How do you go 11-0 on the road? A plus-42 run differential certainly helps. That’s the highest in a single postseason. The prior record was plus-33, set by the 2018 Red Sox. Before these Rangers, no team had won more than nine consecutive road games, even spanning postseasons.

2. Nathan Eovaldi came through for the Rangers -- again. He’s one of 10 pitchers to start six games in a single postseason. (The D-backs' Zac Gallen is another of those 10.) Eovaldi is the first to have his team win all six of those starts.

3. Eovaldi worked out of trouble all night, making his six scoreless innings even more impressive. His 27 batters faced were tied for the most in a scoreless postseason start of six innings or fewer with Chris Carpenter in Game 3 of the 2012 National League Division Series and Cole Hamels in Game 3 of the '11 NLDS.

4. Of course, Gallen was rolling through six, too. The Rangers became the second team in postseason history to win a game in which they had no hits and no runs through six innings, joining the Cubs in Game 3 of the 2017 NLDS against the Nationals.

5. With his World Series MVP Award, Corey Seager joined some rarefied air. He’s the fourth to win two World Series MVPs, along with Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson. And he’s the third with three postseason MVPs, joining Orel Hershiser and Dave Stewart.

6. How about the postseason performance by rookie Evan Carter? He was on base 30 times, the second-most times reaching base safely before turning 22 in a postseason career behind Andruw Jones’ 34 across 31 games from 1996-98. He reached in all 17 games, tied for the sixth-longest streak to start a postseason career -- and that’s active, entering his next postseason performance. Carter hit nine doubles, the most by a player in a single postseason.

7. We have to talk about the manager. With this Fall Classic, Bruce Bochy has now won 17 postseason rounds, breaking a tie at 16 with Tony La Russa for the second-most postseason rounds won among managers, behind only Joe Torre’s 19.

8. Bochy has won four World Series titles, one of just six managers to reach that mark. He joins Casey Stengel (seven), Joe McCarthy (seven), Connie Mack (five), Walter Alston (four) and Torre (four). He’s the fifth to win at least one with multiple teams, joining Sparky Anderson (1975-76 Reds, 1984 Tigers), Bucky Harris (1924 Nationals, 1947 Yankees), La Russa (1989 A's, 2006 and '11 Cardinals) and Bill McKechnie (1925 Pirates, 1940 Reds).

9. Speaking of those in charge, general manager Chris Young, who also won with the 2015 Royals, became the third individual to win the World Series as a GM and as a player since at least 1950. The GM of the '69 Mets, Johnny Murphy, did so, as did Stan Musial, who held the role for the '67 Cardinals.

10. Thanks to Marcus Semien, the Rangers homered in 16 straight playoff games, extending the longest such streak in a single postseason. It’s the third-longest overall streak, behind a 23-gamer by the Yankees spanning from 2019-22 and 17 straight by the D-backs from 2007-23, which ended earlier this postseason. And the 16-game streak is active, entering Texas’ next postseason trip.

11. The Rangers went 11-0 when they scored first this postseason. That’s the longest win streak within a single postseason when scoring first, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. They broke a tie with the 2018 Red Sox, '17 Astros, '12 Giants, '04 Red Sox and 1998 Yankees.

12. Reliever Will Smith became the first player to appear on a World Series roster in three straight seasons for three different World Series-winning teams (though he did not pitch in the 2022 Fall Classic). In fact, Smith is the first player in MLB, NFL, NBA or NHL history to appear in at least one game (regular or postseason) with three different championship teams in three consecutive seasons.

13. The Rangers lost 102 games in 2021. Only two other teams have won the World Series two years after losing at least 100 games: the 1969 Mets and 1914 Braves. Each did so two years after a 101-loss season.