The Arizona Diamondbacks barely won more games than they lost, while the Texas Rangers stumbled in the regular season’s final days to surrender their long-held division lead.

Few, if any, baseball prognosticators saw this World Series in their crystal ball.

The Diamondbacks and Rangers meet in the Fall Classic starting tonight, capping a wild playoff season where the month of October didn’t reflect the action of April through September.

Game 1 of the best-of-7 series is set for 8:03 p.m. EDT (7:03 p.m. CDT) in Arlington with all games being televised on Fox and carried on radio by ESPN.

Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll, a leading candidate for Major League Baseball’s rookie of the year, said he always knew Arizona was on the upswing — but winning the National League pennant this season still came as a shock.

“I won’t speak for other people, but I thought it would take a little more time,” Carroll told reporters after Arizona’s Game 7 National League Championship Series win over the Philadelphia Phillies. “So to be able to do it in this first year just makes it all the more special.”

On the rebound in 2023, with help from new rules

Not since 1991 has there been a World Series between two teams that had losing records the previous season.

The Diamondbacks and Rangers were 74-88 and 68-94, respectively, in 2022. The turnaround was particularly dramatic for Arizona which endured a thoroughly miserable 52-110 season in 2021.

In 2023, batters on both teams decreased their strikeout rates and benefitted from new MLB rules designed to reward contact.

The young, athletic Diamondbacks were also aggressive on the bases paths, stealing the second most bags in baseball. They swiped 166 bases in the regular season, seizing on new rules aimed at making thefts easier