Storylines for a Game 5 that could end in long-awaited celebration

So! It’s fair to say that Halloween was not a night full of suspense and spooky intrigue in the World Series: Game 4 was essentially over by the third inning. And while the D-backs did their best to make it respectable in the late innings, the 11-7 final score made it seem closer than it actually was, and most of the evening was spent with both teams thinking ahead to Game 5 on Wednesday.

Because Wednesday could be the night this whole thing is over and the Rangers -- who have been playing in Texas since 1972 -- win their first title in franchise history. That is, of course, unless the D-backs, who have had their backs against the wall before this postseason, can fight their way back again. But for the first time in 2023: We could be looking at the final baseball game of the year.

Here’s a look at three key storylines for Wednesday’s Game 5.

Rangers at D-backs
Rangers lead 3-1
Nathan Eovaldi vs. Zac Gallen
8:03 p.m. ET, FOX

Storyline No. 1: Can a Cy Young contender shut down this seemingly unstoppable Texas offense?

Remember when we were wondering how the Rangers might score runs without Adolis García in the lineup? It’s funny how a 10-0 lead in the third inning makes you not sweat that stuff so much anymore. That deep, relentless lineup looks just as scary right now as it did before García’s injury -- arguably more so, considering Marcus Semien seems to have rediscovered his swing, as evidenced by his three-run homer in the third (and his fifth RBI in the game overall). That was the moment when we all officially started looking toward Game 5.

Speaking of Game 5 … the D-backs will be sending Zac Gallen to the hill. And while he has not been particularly effective this October (5.27 ERA in the playoffs), he did post a 3.47 ERA across 210 innings this season. He also led MLB.com’s Cy Young poll on multiple occasions and was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game. If anyone can shut down Texas, it will be (in theory) someone of his pedigree.

If the Rangers are going to win this World Series, the thing we’re all going to remember about them is how devastating their lineup was, and that lineup is firing on all cylinders right now, even without García. Whom do you pitch around in this lineup? Who doesn’t scare you? They’re peaking at the exact right time … and they only need to do this once more.

Storyline No. 2: Do the D-backs have one more back-from-the-brink moment left in them?

The D-backs blitzed past both the Brewers and the Dodgers to kick off this postseason, but what really impressed everyone about them -- what made the baseball world stand up and truly pay attention -- was what they did in the NLCS. There were multiple moments when it was widely assumed that the Phillies had that series wrapped up.

The Phillies had a 2-0 series lead and a 1-0 lead in the seventh inning of Game 3 … and the D-backs fought back and won.

The Phillies had a 5-3 lead in the eighth inning of Game 4 … and the D-backs fought back and won.

The Phillies won Game 5 to take a 3-2 series lead heading into two games at home … and the D-backs fought back and won both games.

This hill is going to be steeper for them to climb than anything they faced in the NLCS, no question; the odds are very much stacked against them right now. Entering the 2023 postseason, only 14 teams out of 92 have come back to win a best-of-seven series after dropping three of the first four contests. It’s tempting to count Arizona out entirely. You know, like we did in the NLCS. And we saw how that turned out.

The D-backs have shown grit this postseason that most of us didn’t know they had. They will need to muster up every ounce of it they have left if they’re going to survive now.

Storyline No. 3: Are the Rangers really going to do this? Finally?

You may remember, when this World Series began, a cavalcade of references to the last time the Rangers were in the World Series, when they rather infamously came within one strike twice of winning their first championship in franchise history, only to fall to St. Louis. To come that close, and to fall short, well, that leaves scars.

• The 6 teams that have never won it all (Texas included)

But one thing Rangers fans don’t know, because they’ve never won a title before: When you do eventually win a title, all that pain of years past stops being pain. It becomes backstory. It becomes the tragic origin story, the strife that our heroes had to overcome and put behind them so they could ascend to their rightful place -- spraying beverages all over each other in the locker room and releasing their fans from all those years of frustration. Bad memories are only bad memories if nothing ever gets better; otherwise, they’re just what you overcame to reach the mountaintop.

The Rangers can end it all on Wednesday. Those replays of them losing the World Series in 2010 and 2011 that have been so difficult to stomach all these years? A win on Wednesday takes all that pain away … and transforms it into euphoria. All they need is one … more … win.