In a shocking turn of events, the Texas Rangers won both games in Houston to take a 2-0 series lead back to Arlington. That puts the Rangers in an excellent position for the rest of the series while the Astros are just one loss away from an elimination game. For Game 3, I’ve crafted a Same Game Parlay that pays out over 7/1 odds at FanDuel Sportsbook.
Texas Rangers First 5 Innings (-106)
It might sound hard to believe, but the Texas Rangers have yet to lose a game in the postseason. They've also gone a perfect 7-0 in the first 5 innings. After a quick 2-game sweep of the Rays in the Wild Card, the Rangers swept the Orioles in 3 games during the ALDS and now have a 2-0 lead over the Astros in the ALCS. Similar to the ALDS, the Rangers won the first 2 games of the series on the road. I cannot express how crucial that is during the postseason. Winning on the road is the key to success in the playoffs, and that's something the Rangers have done well since only 1 of their 7 wins has come at home – that's insane! In Texas' only home win of the postseason, they thrashed the Orioles by a score of 7-1 to win the ALDS. And for Wednesday, it gets even more exciting because Max Scherzer is back. It was reported that the only way Scherzer could come back this season was if the Rangers made it deep into the playoffs, and Tex as did just that. According to Scherzer, he feels 100% healthy, and Bruce Bochy even admitted that the veteran ace was wearing him down about starting.
Houston, we have a problem. The Astros put out their best two pitchers on extended rest at home and lost both games. That puts Houston in a lot of trouble because Cristian Javier will toe the rubber in a must-win game. Here's the problem – Javier isn't the same pitcher he was last season. In 2022, Javier was nearly unhittable and became a cheat code in the playoffs. But in 2023, Javier had a 4.56 ERA with a 1.27 WHIP in 31 starts, which is a drastic difference from his 2.54 ERA and 0.97 WHIP last year. Of his disappointing regular season, would you want to venture a guess as to which team gave him his worst start? If you guessed the Rangers, you would be correct. Texas shelled Javier for 8 runs, 9 hits and 2 home runs in just 4.1 innings in July. I'm not surprised by that result since the Rangers are the perfect matchup against Javier. The Astros starter ranks in the 1st percentile in ground-ball rate and throws his fastball nearly 60% of the time. If you've watched the Rangers lineup in the postseason, they hunt fastballs early in the count, and they're going to get them against Javier. Plus, the Rangers have 27 extra-base hits in just 7 postseason games, so Javier's inability to get ground balls is going to be his kryptonite.
Check out our Houston Astros vs Texas Rangers predictions