ALDS RECAP: Rangers 11 – Orioles 8, Texas leads the best of 5 series 2-0
The wild-card Rangers have outscored the top two teams in the American League, Orioles and Tampa Bay by 14 runs. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy is one win away from his first ALCS as a manager. He reached the NLCS four times winning three World Series titles with San Francisco.
Mitch Garver hit a third-inning grand slam and Texas won their fourth consecutive game to start this postseason, pushing the Baltimore Orioles to the brink of elimination
Former New York Yankees castoff Aaron Hicks homered for the AL East champion Orioles, who haven’t been swept in a series of at least two games since May 2022. Hicks drove in five runs, including a three-run homer with one out in the ninth that brought the Orioles within three runs. That’s as close as the birds would get.
Corey Seager became the first player to walk five times in a postseason game and scored twice. Oriole pitchers walked 11, and six of those runners scored.
Neither starting pitcher made it through the fifth. Cody Bradford got the win in relief of Jordan Montgomery, tossing 3 2/3 scoreless innings.
Orioles, Jeorge Mateo had four hits, including two doubles.
Baltimore has lost seven straight postseason games. The Orioles were swept by Kansas City in the 2014 ALCS, then lost a winner-take-all game in Toronto as a wild card in 2016
Tuesday night will be the first home game for the Rangers since Sept. 24 and their first playoff game at Globe Life Field. The ballpark did host much of the 2020 postseason for other teams because of the coronavirus pandemic
