Rangers rip through Orioles

Astros 1 win from 7th straight ALCS

Corey Seager and Adolis García homered early, Nathan Eovaldi struck out seven over seven innings in another seriesclinching start and the Rangers completed an American League Division Series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles with a 7-1 victory Tuesday night in Arlington, Texas.

The Rangers, whose loss at Seattle on the last day of the regular season made them a wildcard team instead of the AL West champion, have since won all five of their postseason games.

They are going to the AL Championship Series for the first time since 2011.

Baltimore won an AL-high 101 games and was never swept in a series during the regular season, but the AL East champions are done after a sweep at the most inopportune time. The Orioles have lost eight playoff games in a row over the past 10 seasons.

“We were supposed to win 76 games. Won 101, won the American League East. Really proud of our group. They defied all the odds. Nobody gave us a chance,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said. “These guys played their butts off for six months. We just didn’t play well for these last three, unfortunately.”

Seager pulled a 445-foot drive into the right-field seats in the first inning, and García’s three-run homer made it 6-0 in the second to chase Orioles righthander Dean Kremer, the Israeli-American pitcher making his first career postseason start.

It was the first Rangers playoff game at Globe Life Field, the stadium that was brand new in 2020 when it hosted much of MLB’s neutral postseason during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nathaniel Lowe also homered for Texas, a solo shot in the sixth. Lowe had led off the Rangers’ five-run second inning with a lineout to left, but that came on the 15th pitch of the at-bat after fouling off nine two-strike pitches.

Astros ambush Twins

José Abreu hit a three-run homer for Houston in a four-run first inning against Sonny Gray and piled on with a two-run shot in the ninth, powering the Astros past the Minnesota Twin, 9-1, in Minneapolis for a 2-1 lead in their AL Division Series.

Yordan Alvarez hit his fourth home run in three games and Alex Bregman had a homer and an RBI single for the defending World Series champions, who took charge from their first atbat and moved within one win of a seventh consecutive AL Championship Series appearance. Astros starter Cristian Javier took it from there with nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings.

“This was one of the reasons why I signed with this organization, to be in the best situation and compete,” said Abreu, who hit a career-low .237 in his Astros debut season, nearly 50 points below his career mark.

“We were fighting an uphill battle as a team. I was fighting an uphill battle every inning,” Gray said.

Javier has been uneven at best this year, with a 4.56 ERA that was by far his worst in four major league seasons. He failed to finish five innings in five of his prior 11 starts.

Manager Dusty Baker expressed confidence in the 26year-old since the series began, a belief he connected to his extended experience of seeing Javier at his best.

The righthander, who threw six hitless innings in World Series Game 4 last year to beat Philadelphia, lowered his career postseason ERA to 1.91 over 37„ innings.

With 13 misses in 16 swings at Javier’s slider, the Twins flailed through the late afternoon shadows in a feeble response to the early explosion by the Astros. Javier allowed only one hit, a one-out double by Max Kepler in the first.

Game 4 is Wednesday at Target Field.

Dodgers in trouble

The Los Angeles Dodgers cobbled together a 100-win regular season, using a strong offense to compensate for a banged-up starting rotation.

Time is running out for that formula to produce even one postseason win.

The Dodgers are down to their last chance in Game 3 of the NL Division Series, facing a 2-0 deficit against the Arizona Diamondbacks following a 4-2 loss Monday night in Los Angeles. The series resumes Wednesday night.

Much has been made of L.A.’s bad starting pitching in the first two games — particularly Clayton Kershaw’s debacle in Game 1 — but it’s also true that the Dodgers’ offense hasn’t been doing much, either. Mookie Betts is 0 for 7 over the first two games while Max Muncy is 1 for 7 and Freddie Freeman is 1 for

6.

“They’ve gotten the big hit,” said Muncy, who hit 36 homers during the season. “In the playoffs, that’s what matters. You’ve got to get the hit when it matters. They’ve done that several times and we haven’t.”

The Dodgers trailed 4-1 in the sixth inning of Game 2 when they loaded the bases with one out. Kiké Hernández brought home one run with an infield single, but James Outman struck out and Kolten Wong’s groundout ended the threat.

Braves stay mum

As the Atlanta Braves boarded the plane for Philadelphia on Tuesday, they remained mum on their starting pitcher for Game 3 of the NL Division Series against the Phillies.

Unless the team goes with an opener out of the bullpen on Wednesday — which manager Brian Snitker said is an option — it appears either 12-game winner Bryce Elder or 20-year-old rookie AJ Smith-Shawver will get the nod against Aaron Nola.

Elder, a first-time All-Star and mainstay of the injuryplagued rotation nearly the entire season, would seem the most logical choice.

But he appeared to tire down the stretch after throwing a career-high 174„ innings, opening the door for Smith-Shawver — who has just six MLB appearances with five starts — to take the mound with the best-of-five series tied at one game apiece.