By Bill Jones
/ CBS Texas
The Lone Star ALCS Showdown comes down to one night
HOUSTON (CBSNewsTexas.com) – How fitting it is! The first ever Lone Star Series for the American League pennant comes down to one final Game 7 showdown Monday night in Houston.
The game is at Minute Maid Park, but as it turns out, the Rangers have "road field advantage" over an Astros team that has lost more games than it has won at home this year. That includes a 1-4 home record in the postseason.
The Astros latest loss came courtesy of a Rangers team that got a fourth postseason win from its ace, Nathan Eovaldi, who went 6 1⁄3 innings and got stellar relief help from Josh Sborz and Jose Leclerc, on Sunday night.
The Rangers led, 4-2, after eight innings, thanks to early home runs from Mitch Garver and Jonah Heim. Cleanup hitter Adolis Garcia, who was thunderously booed by Astros fans during every at bat, struck out in his first four plate appearances but then sent the crowd scurrying for the exits when he smoked a line drive grand slam in a 5-run ninth inning that was the exclamation point on a 9-2 runaway win.
It was a great turnabout from Friday's Game 5 in Arlington when the man Rangers fans love to boo, Jose Altuve, blasted a ninth inning game winning three-run homer off Leclerc to beat Texas, 5-4.
But now, all of a sudden, the Rangers ride a wave of confidence in a series that has defied the odds with the road team winning all six games so far.
In baseball, however, momentum is only as strong as the next day's starting pitcher. And, next up in the Texas rotation is 39-year old Max Scherzer, who only lasted four innings in his return from a strained teres major muscle in a Game 3 loss in Arlington on Wednesday.
Scherzer, though, is the most experienced Rangers postseason pitcher, having made 28 postseason appearances. In 2019, he was the starting pitcher for the Washington Nationals when they won the World Series with a Game 7 win in Houston.
Scherzer will be opposed by Cristian Javier, who gave up two runs onthree hits in 5 2⁄3 innings in their previous matchup in this series, an 8-5 Game 3 Astros win in Arlington.
If the Rangers win, they will be headed to the World Series for the third time in club history and the first time since 2011. Meanwhile, the defending champion Astros are looking for their fifth trip in the last seven years to the World Series.
