AL pennant will come from the heart of Texas
Everything is certainly bigger deep in the heart of Texas this baseball postseason, with a Lone Star State showdown for a spot in the World Series.
Defending world champion Houston is no stranger to playing long into October, now getting ready for its seventh consecutive American League Championship Series. This time, the Astros play the upand-coming Texas Rangers, who led them in the AL West standings for most of the season but again didn’t fare well in the head-to-head matchups.
Both benches and bullpens cleared the last time the two teams played in Houston, where the ALCS opener will be played Sunday night.
“There’s a lot of intensity … I’d say we’re rivals,” first-year Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said Thursday. “That’s the way baseball should be, I guess. They’re your opponent, so I don’t think it should be a lovefest out there.”
Especially with so much at stake when these rivals meet in the playoffs for the first time.
This will be only the 10th postseason series featuring teams from the same state since 1969. Houston's Dusty Baker and Bochy are the winningest active managers, both with more than 2,000 wins in 26 seasons managing in the big leagues. Bochy won three
World Series with the San Francisco Giants, and Baker finally got his first championship last season.
“Now me and Bruce Bochy need to battle,” the 74-year-old Baker said. ”I know Bruce and he knows me.”
They have gone head-tohead 214 times. Their only playoff meeting was the 2012 NLDS that Bochy's Giants won in five games over Baker's Cincinnati Reds.
Houston has dominated the AL West since the Rangers won the division in 2016, their last winning season before this year. The Astros have since been to the World Series four times, winning two of them, and the only time without a division title was the abbreviated 60-game regular season during the 2020 pandemic, when as a wild-card team they lost a seven-game ALCS to Tampa Bay.
“They are the reigning champions, so you have to give them respect for that,” Rangers catcher-designated hitter Mitch Garver said. “I’d say we have equally as good a chance to win as they did.”
Texas led the AL West for 148 of the first 149 days this season, and 159 overall. But when the Rangers lost at Seattle on the final day of the regular season, a day after clinching a playoff spot, and Houston won to match them at 90 wins, the Astros had another division title and a first-round playoff bye.
The Rangers became a wild card and had to fly across the country — going over North Texas on the way — before sweeping the AL’s winningest teams from the regular season, Tampa Bay and Baltimore.
Houston, which won its ALDS over Minnesota in four games, had the division tiebreaker because of its 9-4 record against the Rangers this year. The Astros had clinched the season series even before their obliterating three-game sweep with 16 homers and 39 runs in Arlington from Sept. 4-6. That is the only time they have played since the benches cleared July 26, after the Astros won the previous two nights to move within a game of the division lead.
“It's a heated rivalry. I understand why there's some animosity,” Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe said.
On Friday, the Rangers announced lefthander Jordan Montgomery as their probable Game 1 starter. Montgomery is 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA in his two starts this postseason, including Game 2 of the AL Division Series at Baltimore last Sunday.
Also, Max Scherzer declared himself “ready to go” after throwing another bullpen session and doing fielding drills Friday. The Rangers haven’t said whether the three-time Cy Young Award winner will be on their ALCS roster. Scherzer hasn’t pitched in a game since Sept. 12 because of a muscle strain in his shoulder.
Braves power outage
Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos faced reporters after his record-setting 104-win team were once again bounced from the playoffs by the Phillies in the NLDS in four games.
“Look, nobody has the exact formula,” Anthopoulos said. “If they did, the same team would be winning year after year. That's what makes baseball great. You're constantly looking for answers.”
The 2020s are starting to feel like the 1990s for the Braves: Another dazzling regular season; another flop in the postseason.
In the 1990s, the Braves began a record-setting run of 14 straight division titles that included only one World Series title. They are now in the midst of six straight NL East titles. But a 2021 World Series title is the only time the postseason didn't end in disappointment.
The culprit this time was a stunner — an offense that produced more runs than any other team suddenly went cold at the most important time of the year. Take out Austin Riley, who hit .353 (6 of 17) with two homers, and the remaining Braves batted .161 (18 of 112) with one homer and only one other extra-base hit over four games.
Anthopoulos was at a loss to explain the sudden power outage, which was especially jarring as the Phillies did a pretty good imitation of the Braves by smacking 11 homers. Nick Castellanos outhomered Atlanta all by himself, going deep twice in both Games 3 and 4.
“We're a team that slugs,” Anthopoulos said. “No one would doubt we have a lot of power on this team. We just didn't slug in this series.”
NLCS shaping up
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said his team will start righthander Zac Gallen in Game 1 and Merrill Kelly in Game 2 of the NLCS, which begins Monday in Philadelphia.
The Diamondbacks haven't made it this far in the playoffs since 2007, while the Phillies are back for a second straight year after Thursday's 3-1 win.
They will face Phillies aces Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola in the first two games at Citizens Bank Park, where the hosts are 4-0 so far this postseason.
Surgery for Twins star
Minnesota Twins star Byron Buxton had arthroscopic surgery on his troublesome right knee with the goal of alleviating the irritation related to patellar tendinitis and returning to center field next season . . . Milwaukee Brewers righthander Brandon Woodruff could miss the 2024 season after surgery to repair the anterior capsule in his throwing shoulder. The Brewers said Woodruff is expected to sit out most, if not all, of next season . . . Authorities are seeking at least five people in an armed robbery of the St. Louis Cardinals complex in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.