Rangers advance to ALCS with sweep of 101-win Orioles

By Samantha Stephensen

ALDS Game 3 Recap: Texas Rangers 7 – Baltimore Orioles 1. Rangers win series 3-0

ARLINGTON, Texas – Two early home runs and  Nathan Eovaldi (struck out seven over seven innings) was all the Rangers needed to finish off the the top seed in the American League completing an AL Division Series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles with a 7-1 victory Tuesday night in Game 3.

The Rangers, who lost in Seattle on the last day of the regular season making them a wild-card team instead of the AL West champion, have since won all five of their postseason games. They are going to the ALCS for the first time since 2011.

Baltimore won an American League high 101 games and were never swept in a series during the regular season.

Rangers

“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.”

The Orioles have lost eight playoff games in a row over the past 10 seasons. That’s still at least 4 post seasons short of matching the Twins 18 game playoff losing streak.

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 postseason during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a packed house for his first home playoff game with the Rangers, Corey Seager blew the roof of the building when he blasted a home run in front of 40,861 fans in his first at-bat. He went deep seven times for the Dodgers here in 2020.

WHAT’S NEXT 

Orioles: Spring training in Sarasota, Florida, in February

The Rangers wait to see if they will be going to Houston or Minnesota for ALCS Game 1 on Sunday.