Rangers took the long way to ALCS
Texas finished the regular season with a seven-game trip to Anaheim and Seattle, going 3-4 and squeezing into the postseason. The Rangers then flew across the country to play Tampa Bay and won two games at Tropicana Field before going on to Baltimore and winning twice at Camden Yards. They clinched the Division Series on Tuesday in their first home game since Sept. 24. In all it was a 11-game, four-city trip over 14 days that covered roughly 7,600 miles.
“It’s a tough group,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “The road trip brought them together even more.”
The game Tuesday was the first playoff game the Rangers played at Globe Life Field, but it was the 17 th postseason game at the ballpark, which hosted neutral-site games during the 2020 pandemic.
Extra bases
The Orioles entered the postseason having not been swept in a series since May 13-15, 2022, when they lost three games at Detroit. Then they lost three in a row against the Rangers and were knocked out of the playoffs after winning 101 games in the regular season. “These guys played their butts off for six months. We just didn’t play well the last three [games],” manager Brandon Hyde said . . . Signing Nate Eovaldi means accepting he will end up on the injured list at some point during the season. He’s made 30 or more starts once over the last nine years. The upside is you get Postseason Nate, who has a 2.70 ERA in 13 career playoff appearances, with his team winning 10 of those games. “Maniacal focus,” Bochy said. “He’s been here and he’s done it. I think he thrives on it. He wants to be the guy out there and just has a tremendous focus.” Eovaldi allowed one run over seven innings at Baltimore to clinch the Division Series. “To me, pitching wins championships. You’ve seen it across the league,” Eovaldi said. “Good pitching is able to neutralize a good lineup. I feel like that’s what we’ve been able to do here lately.” ... Christian Vázquez was on the roster but did not appear in any of Minnesota’s six playoff games. The Twins used Ryan Jeffers as their catcher. Vázquez had a .598 OPS this season . . . Mookie Betts is a career .251 hitter with a .710 OPS in 58 playoff games. The last three seasons — 17 of 72 (.236) with nine runs and six RBIs over 19 games — are particularly ugly. “I can’t speak for all of us, but I did absolutely nothing to help us win,” Betts said after the Dodgers were eliminated Wednesday. “There’s no real words for it.” . . . Adam Wainwright was excellent in the Fox booth for the Twins-Astros series, showing the ability to explain the modern concepts of pitching in a way that wasn’t too technical for the average viewer to appreciate . . . The Nationals fired four coaches, among them bench coach Tim Bogar and third base coach Gary DiSarcina. Bogar was a Red Sox coach from 2009-12. DiSarcina, who’s from Billerica, had three stints with the Sox. He was in player development from 200610, managed Pawtucket in 2013, and then returned as bench coach in 2017
. . . Baseball and softball, which were dropped from the 2024 Olympics in Paris, are likely to return for 2028 in Los Angeles. The organizing committee chose baseball and softball as “provisional sports” for the Games along with flag football, cricket, lacrosse, and squash. The International Olympic Committee will vote on the proposal Monday . . . The playoffs are a crapshoot, as Billy Beane famously said. Even for legendary pitchers, it seems.
Clayton Kershaw is 5-6 with a 6.13 ERA in 12 Game 1 starts and has only four quality starts. Among pitchers with at least five Game 1 starts, only Chris Sale (6.43) has a higher ERA. John Smoltz (1.58 over six starts), Madison Bumgarner (1.73 over five starts), and John Lackey (2.18 in five starts) are on the other end of the spectrum. Lackey made the All-Star team once and received only one Hall of Fame vote in his only year on the ballot. But he was one of the all-time playoff horses, going 8-6 with a 3.44 ERA over 29 games and winning championships with three teams . . . Arizona did not expect to host a playoff game Wednesday and had Guns N’ Roses booked at Chase Field. Axl Rose and Co. moved the show to nearby Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre. There was no cold October rain, fortunately . . . The Yankees gave Carlos Rodón the same deal (six years, $162 million) the Dodgers gave Freddie Freeman. Rodón was 3-8 with a 6.85 ERA, made only 14 starts, and in his final start turned his back when pitching coach Matt Blake came to the mound, which angered the coaching staff. Freeman has played all but four games the last two seasons, with 160 extra-base hits and a .948 OPS ... Danny Haas, a former amateur scout with the Red Sox, is the new scouting director of the Nationals. Haas was with the Sox from 2002-11 before having roles with the Orioles and Diamondbacks . . . Happy birthday to Tim Young, who is 50. The lefthanded reliever from Mississippi appeared in eight games for the 2000 Red Sox. He threw 5‚ shutout innings in the first five games, allowing only three hits. Young then gave up five runs on four hits — three of them home runs — over 1„ innings in his next three games. From there, Young joined Team USA for the Olympics and helped win a gold medal in Sydney playing with, among others, Doug Mientkiewicz. The Sox sold Young to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp after the Games, then re-signed him as a free agent 11 months later. He made 57 appearances for Triple A Pawtucket in 2002 before being traded to Cleveland, but never appeared in another major league game.