HOUSTON – Before Texas Rangers outfielder Adolis García took the stage in the first inning Sunday at Minute Maid Park, a hostile Houston crowd showered him with loud boos. The Rangers entered the home of a frontier dynasty on the verge of elimination. They stared into the defending champions’ lair and knew there was bad blood afoot. And for eight innings, the ridicule seemed to penetrate García’s headspace. The powerful bat struck four times. He tracked throws outside the strike zone. He took strong blows and sniffed even harder. But the poetry of the postseason was not smooth.
The game remained close in the ninth inning. A faulty Texas bullpen clung perilously. It was a 5-2 game, the bases were loaded and García was ahead. Finally, the man hit a fastball from Ryne Stanek and sent it choking into the ballpark’s Crawford Boxes. García rounded the bases in a more subdued manner after his histrionics in Game 5. The Rangers took a 9-2 lead. You will live to see another day.
García delivered the deafening blow, but the game’s defining moment may have come earlier. Here were the marching orders: The Texas Rangers needed eight outs from their weak bullpen. The beating heart of the Houston order was in motion. Brantley. Bregman. Alvarez. This is where this team should have failed, this is where all the success of the first seven enchanting games of this postseason should have been undone.
With one out in the seventh after Jose Altuve hit a single to right-center, Texas manager Bruce Bochy had no choice but to turn to his bullpen. This time it meant handing the ball to Josh Sborz, a 29-year-old Virginian who had a 5.50 ERA in the regular season but has played his best this postseason. Sborz immediately got Michael Brantley to hit a 4-6-3 double play. If the heart rate dropped in the Texas dugout, it was only for a moment.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, with Sborz still on the mound, Alex Bregman walked and Jose Abreu hit a single. There was an outage with left-hander Kyle Tucker at the plate. Bochy took his time with the decision. He waited until Sborz was about to step on the rubber. Then the revered manager limped to the mound and called Jose Leclerc, the Dominican Republic-born pitcher who had blown Game 5, who had watched the ball fly off Altuve’s bat and heard the sighs of his home crowd.
Leclerc accompanied Tucker on five pitches. Now the bases were loaded, Mauricio Dubón stepped to the front with a chance to go down as one of the men who helped continue a dynastic run. Orange flags denoting the Astros’ American League pennants float above the ballpark. Directly to the right hang two gold flags commemorating their World Series victories in 2017 and 2022. Dubón gently served the shortstop. Pinch-hitter Jon Singleton fought with all his might, but ultimately came up short on a 92-mph cutter. Leclerc exhaled.
And in the top half of the ninth inning, the Rangers’ offense relieved the pressure. García’s slam – as well as earlier home runs from designated hitter Mitch Garver and catcher Jonah Heim – helped confirm another outstanding postseason start from Nathan Eovaldi, who is now 4-0 for the Rangers this postseason.
Houston starter Framber Valdez gave up three runs in five innings. His team gained an early advantage in the first inning when Alvarez Altuve scored with a single. But the Astros only had six total hits, and the Rangers overcame their supposedly tragic mistake and kept the Reapers at bay for another day.
Now this series is tied at 3 points. Max Scherzer will start Game 7 for the Rangers. The Astros will counter with Cristian Javier. The winner goes to the World Series.
GO DEEPER
Adolis García, Rangers get “baseball justice” and force a Game 7
(Photo: Troy Taormina / USA Today)