An All-Texas American League Championship Series begins on Sunday as the Texas Rangers travel to Houston to face the Astros in Game 1.
The teams met 13 times during the regular season, with Houston holding a 9-4 advantage. The Astros came from behind to take the American League West division championship from the Rangers on the final day of the regular season. As a result, the Rangers had to begin the postseason as a wild card team on the road but breezed through two vaunted American League East opponents to reach their first American League Championship Series (ALCS) in 12 years.
“Hopefully, we make some adjustments after the way some of those games went, to be honest,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told the media on Thursday. “You still never stop working to get better or do something a little bit better when you’re going up against an opposing team. You never assume that you know enough about them … but the fact that we have them in our division and there’s a little more knowledge might make it a little easier.”
The Texas offense has been clicking on all cylinders — scoring 32 runs as stars like Corey Seager and Adolis Garcia and younger players like Josh Jung and Evan Carter continue to set a high bar. The starting pitching has also delivered some clutch performances and may be getting even stronger as Max Scherzer and Jon Gray near their returns.
Houston, meanwhile, got to rest up before eliminating the Minnesota Twins in four games to reach its seventh consecutive ALCS. The defending World Series champions exploded for nine runs in a Game 3 win and followed it with a 3-2 victory behind Jose Urquidy’s pitching and a suddenly hot Jose Abreu at the plate.
“It took a little while, but he drove in 29 runs in September,” Houston manager Dusty Baker told the media, speaking about Abreu after Wednesday’s series-clinching win. “That’s getting it done in the clutch. He had a big series here, and hopefully, he can continue that against Texas and hopefully [in] the World Series.”
This ALCS will mark the 10th time teams from the same state have faced each other in an MLB playoff series since 1969 and the first such series that does not involve California-based teams since the 2000 World Series between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees.
The Rangers and Astros have never played each other in a playoff series before, and the stakes for their first could not be higher. It will be a best-of-seven series, meaning the first to win four games will represent the American League in the World Series.
Game 1 begins at 7:15 p.m. CT on Sunday, with Jordan Montgomery set to start for the Rangers and Justin Verlander for Houston.