After years of the Houston Astros reigning supreme in the American League, a new king has taken the throne. Their name is the Texas Rangers, and they are division rivals with the Astros as both teams compete in the American League West. After Houston defeated the Minnesota Twins and the Rangers swept both the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles, many fans were expecting this matchup to be one of the best series of the season.
It is safe to say that it exceeded expectations. In games one and two, the Astros were stunned by the stellar pitching that the Rangers had provided. Game one saw pitcher Jordan Montgomery throw for nearly seven innings, giving up no runs while also racking up six strikeouts on five hits. Leody Taveras and Jonah Heim each hit a home run, which led the Rangers to a 2-0 win at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
In game two, Nathan Eovaldi took the mound for Texas while the Astros turned to Framber Valdez to try to tie the series. Texas jumped on Valdez early, bringing home four runs and silencing the Astros fans in the process. The Rangers would add on another run in the third through another homer by Jonah Heim, while the Astros would score a run each in the second, fourth, sixth and eighth innings. It was not enough, as the Rangers took a 2-0 lead back to Arlington with Astros fans extremely worried for the rest of the series.
This series would turn out to see road teams dominating, something that can be an uncommon occurrence during baseball playoffs. Game three saw Astros pitcher Cristian Javier throw a solid five innings, only giving up two runs on three hits while totaling three strikeouts. The Astros offense, which was unusually quiet in the first two games of the series, came to life. Jose Altuve had a big performance, going 2-5 with a homer while Yordan Alvarez went 2-4 with two runs batted in. Unlikely hero Maurico Dubon had a three hit performance to round out an 8-5 win for Houston.
Game four saw the Astros dominating Max Scherzer and the Rangers by winning 10-3. Altuve was up to his usual antics, going 3-4 while Dubon and Alvarez also had multi-hit games. Jose Abreu also drove in three runs to put an exclamation point on a dominant win.
With the series tied at two games a piece, game five proved to be a crucial matchup. The Rangers led the Astros 4-2 in the top of the ninth, with Houston down to its last two outs. However, Altuve came up with a clutch three run homer to give the Astros a 5-4 lead. Relief pitcher Ryan Pressley had ice in his veins and closed the door on the Rangers comeback attempt, giving Houston a 3-2 lead. At this point, they were one win away from going to the World Series.
The repeat dreams would soon end, with games six and seven turning into an absolute disaster. Valdez struggled in game six just like he did in game two, and home runs by Mitch Garver and Adolis Garcia led the Rangers to a big game six win to force a game seven. In that game, Texas jumped on Cristian Javier early, even forcing Houston to take him out of the game during the first inning. Corey Seager, who struggled throughout the series, came up clutch with three hits while Garcia became the most hated man in Houston after racking up four hits. The Rangers would go on to win by a score of 11-4 and advance to the World Series.
With a massive turnaround from last season, it will be interesting to see if the Rangers can finally win their first World Series. After years of heartaches and playoff choke jobs, will the boys from the DFW bring glory to Globe Life Field? The Arizona Diamondbacks, a young and hungry team, stand in their way. One thing is for sure, it will be a matchup that you will not want to miss.
