HOUSTON — On Sept. 25, the Texas Rangers began a two-week odyssey that almost cratered their season. By the end, it became the defining stretch for a team that has come to brand itself as resilient at every turn. The Rangers had won two out of three in Anaheim but lost three out of four in Seattle. They watched the AL West crown slip away to none other than the Houston Astros. They then flew across the country, more than five hours in the air, for a Wild Card matchup with the Rays. Against the odds, the Rangers beat the Rays in two, then swept the Orioles in three. They beat the vaunted Astros in the first two games of the ALCS before reality finally caught up. They lost three in a row at home. Their season was on the ropes. And that all led them here: Game 7 in Minute Maid Park. Another contest they were not favored to win. Another game where this team banded together, crushed the baseball and clinched the third trip to the World Series in franchise history.
The Rangers beat the Astros 11-4 in Monday’s ALCS Game 7. The headlining act was not hard to find. Adolis García was again at the center of attention, going 4-for-5 with two home runs and five runs batted in, cementing himself in Texas postseason lore once and for all. The Rangers have played only four of their past 18 games at home. They are going to the World Series anyway.
Even before García’s latest feats, his team struck quickly and decisively. A tone-setting first inning started with one mammoth swing from Corey Seager, who sent a fly ball screaming 440 feet, leaving the bat at more than 113 mph. Evan Carter walked and stole second. Then García — who received far quieter boos than he did before his first at-bat in a tense Game 6 — smashed a ball off the left-field wall to score Carter. García might have had a double had he not stood in the box admiring his near home run. He made up for it by stealing second and then scoring on a Mitch Garver bloop single. The Rangers knocked Houston starter Cristian Javier out of the game after only one-third of an inning and put a damper on El Reptil’s otherwise sterling postseason resume. Like that, Texas held a 3-0 advantage with Max Scherzer on the mound.
But this is October, and these are the Astros. Houston answered accordingly. Jose Altuve belted a leadoff double off the left-field wall, knocking out a panel in the out-of-town scoreboard. The Houston crowd roared to life. Altuve scored on a hard-hit single down the left-field line from José Abreu. Scherzer faced danger with runners on the corners and one out but escaped the first inning when he got Michael Brantley to hit into a 4-6-3 double play.
In the third inning, García did it again. This time, after he ducked his head away from a high-and-tight curveball, he stepped out of the box and let the boos rain down once more. Then he smacked a fastball the opposite way, curling it around the right-field foul pole. It was García’s fourth consecutive game with a home run and his sixth homer overall this postseason. The Rangers went ahead 4-1 as their sparkplug jaunted around the bases like a born showman.
Not to be outdone, Alex Bregman got a middle-middle fastball in the bottom of the third and unleashed. His home run towered high above left-center and made the game 4-2.
Scherzer lasted only 2 2/3 innings before Jordan Montgomery came in for a crucial moment of relief. Montgomery, with slight shades of how manager Bruce Bochy once used Madison Bumgarner en route to a World Series title, was brought in to face left-handed hitters Brantley and Kyle Tucker. He ended up going 2 1/3 innings, allowing only three hits and no runs.
In the fourth inning, the Texas Rangers planted their flag in downtown Houston. Josh Jung singled. Marcus Semien walked. Seager singled. Then it was the rookie Carter who knocked a two-run double down the right-field line, bringing up none other than García, who singled through the infield to bring home two more runs. By the time all the damage was done, the Rangers led 8-2. What was setting up to be a heated, classic Game 7 instead became a bludgeoning.
Nathaniel Lowe added to the pounding with a two-run homer in the sixth. For Bochy, who has already won three World Series, it was another Game 7 masterclass. Bochy is now an unprecedented 6-0 in winner-take-all postseason games. The manager has guided teams to victories in 14 of his past 15 playoff series. And this series joined the 2019 World Series — which the Astros lost in a Game 7 Scherzer start — as the only best-of-seven series in which the road team won every game.
In case those superlative facts were not enough, García teed off on another ball in the eighth inning, landing in Houston’s Crawford Boxes for his seventh postseason home run. His 20 RBIs set a record for the most of any player before the start of the World Series.
As he rounded third, García put a hand to his ear and welcomed whatever boos were left.
(Photo: Troy Taormina / USA Today)
