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It will be an all-American League West Division American League Championship Series this season as the Texas Rangers make the brief trip to Houston to take on the AL West Division Champion and defending World Series Champion Houston Astros. After holding the division lead for 159 days this season, the Rangers settled for a wildcard spot after losing on the last day of the season. The Astros will be making their seventh straight appearance in the ALCS, an American League record. The pitching matchup for game one will feature Rangers' lefty Jordan Montgomery (10-11, 3.20) taking on Astros' righty Justin Verlander (13-8, 3.22). The first pitch is slated for 8:15 PM EST.
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After stumbling through the final few weeks of the season, few could have predicted that the Rangers would be the hottest team in the American League Playoffs thus far and a perfect 5-0 heading into the ALCS against AL West Division rival Houston. The Rangers have benefitted from excellent starting pitching, primarily Jordan Montgomery and Nathan Eovaldi, and an offense that is averaging over six runs per game to vault their way into the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2011. The Rangers pitching staff could even see a boost in this series as starting pitchers Max Scherzer and Jon Gray may be eligible to return from injury to strengthen the team's starting depth. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy will be looking to return to the World Series for the fourth time in his career and first as an American League manager. He is not, however, getting ahead of himself and taking things one game at a time.
“I haven't been thinking about anything but trying to win this series [against Baltimore],” Bochy said as the Rangers prepared for game three against Baltimore. “I'm a game at a time, series at a time. That's as far as I can go. But it could happen. You don't know. But I'm just excited to hear we're in the Championship Series.”
The Rangers will hand the ball to Montgomery in game one of this series and that has been a very good thing down the stretch. Montgomery is 1-0 in two starts this postseason while allowing 15 hits in 11 innings pitched and striking out seven batters. He was even better down the stretch, going 2-0 in his last five starts with an ERA of 1.74 while allowing 30 hits in 31 innings with 26 strikeouts. Montgomery hasn't faced the Astros in a Texas uniform but did defeat them while pitching for the Cardinals earlier this season. He went six innings and allowed six hits and a run while striking out six. Given the state of the Rangers' bullpen, it is imperative that Montgomery gives the Rangers at least six innings in this start.
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Free Daily NCAA Lock Pick, Friday October 13th: Colorado vs Stanford 10:00pmET CLICK TO SEE PICK NOW