ALCS Game 7 Rangers vs. Astros live updates (2024)

The Texas Rangers, the oldest franchise in the majors without a World Series title, will play for one next week. They have captured their first American League pennant since 2010-11. They triumphed over the defending-champ Houston Astros — their intrastate rival who stole first place and a Wild Card bye from Texas on the last day of the regular season — in a memorable ALCS that featured heroics and hot heads, home runs and robberies, seven road wins and ended Monday in an 11-4 Rangers runaway victory in Game 7 at Minute Maid Park.

The story of Game 7, at first, was the collapse of Cristian Javier. The Astros right-hander who has shoved time and again in the postseason had no answers in the first inning. The Rangers locked in on his fastball and banged it. Corey Seager homered. Adolis García fell a few feet short. Javier faced five batters and recorded one out.

The Rangers just kept adding on. A run in the third, four in the fourth, two in the sixth and one more in the eighth. Texas had 15 hits and four walks, going 6-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Seager reached base four times. Evan Carter came up clutch early. Nathaniel Lowe homered. Max Scherzer recorded the first eight outs of the ballgame, allowing two runs, and then manager Bruce Bochy asked Jordan Montgomery and the Rangers bullpen to preserve a comfortable (and growing) lead. They did.

The man of the hour in Houston was García. In Game 5, he reacted strongly to a hit by pitch and prompted the benches to clear. In Game 6, he struck out four times, seemingly shrinking amid the boos raining down around him at Minute Maid Park, then hammered a grand slam to ensure a Game 7. And then, in the finale, he homered twice and hit an RBI single off the top of the wall. He drove in five runs. García’s slash line for the series: .357/.400/.893 for a 1.293 OPS, five homers and 15 RBI. His 20 RBI this postseason already ranks third all-time for most RBI in a postseason, tied with 2020 Seager and one behind 2011 David Freese.

The Rangers will await the winner of Phillies-Diamondbacks in Philadelphia on Tuesday. For now, they’ll pop the bubbly and celebrate in the visiting clubhouse.

HOUSTON – Dusty Baker has expressed to multiple people inside and outside of the Houston Astros organization that 2023 will be his final season as manager, sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic over the past week.

Baker declined comment when asked by The Athletic if he had told people in the game this was his last season. Houston’s bid for back-to-back World Series titles ended with an 11-4 Game 7 loss to the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series on Monday night.

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On Sept. 25, the Texas Rangers began a two-week odyssey that almost cratered their season. By the end, it became the defining stretch for a team that has come to brand itself as resilient at every turn. The Rangers had won two out of three in Anaheim but lost three out of four in Seattle. They watched the AL West crown slip away to none other than the Houston Astros. They then flew across the country, more than five hours in the air, for a Wild Card matchup with the Rays. Against the odds, the Rangers beat the Rays in two, then swept the Orioles in three. They beat the vaunted Astros in the first two games of the ALCS before reality finally caught up. They lost three in a row at home. Their season was on the ropes. And that all led them here: Game 7 in Minute Maid Park. Another contest they were not favored to win. Another game where this team banded together, crushed the baseball and clinched the third trip to the World Series in franchise history.

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Nothing doing for the Rangers in the ninth, as Marcus Semien singled and was stranded at first. Corey Seager hit a line drive hard to right field. It was caught.

But who cares. The Rangers need three more outs to secure their first trip to the World Series since 2011. Champagne on ice. José Leclerc on to pitch.

Wow. That was frightening. Aroldis Chapman gave Chas McCormick 104 mph into the right hamstring with one out and one on in the eighth inning. Figure that’s bruise is going to look like a grapefruit tomorrow morning. Wild that he stayed in the game. Kinda wonder what MLB’s hardest hit-by-pitch ever is.

If you’re an Astros fan, you’re probably already looking ahead to next season at this point. Will they bring back manager Dusty Baker? Does he want to be back?

If you’re a Rangers fan, you’re already looking ahead to the Diamondbacks and the Phillies, and you’re hoping they need to go 18 innings tomorrow night. If I’m a Rangers fan, I’d rather face the Diamondbacks. Even though the Phillies lost today, I wouldn’t want anything to do with the energy in Philly in the World Series.

The Rangers have never won a World Series. But here's a list of current Rangers with World Series rings: Max Scherzer, Nathan Eovaldi, Aroldis Chapman, Will Smith, Corey Seager.

Houston was able to get to Josh Sborz, finally. Sborz got to two outs, but Alex Bergman doubled to the left-center gap ripping a slider that was down and away — actually a nice pitch.

That prompted Bruce Bochy to bring in Chapman, whom, with many postseason leads you just wouldn’t trust these days. But Texas was up eight runs. Even in Houston, the site of some of Chapman’s worst moments, the lefty had breathing room.

So, of course, Yordan Alvarez gets him on grounder up the middle to score Bregman and cut Texas' lead to 10-3. Chapman's pitch wasn't bad. It was 100 mph and low and away, but Alvarez is so powerful, he just needed to tap it for his third hit of the night.

Whatever script Dusty Baker and the Astros front office drew up before this one for their pitching plan, I don’t think the path to 27 outs went like this:

Cristian Javier: one out

Phil Maton: two outs

Hunter Brown: six outs

J.P. France: two outs

Hector Neris: four outs

Bryan Abreu: three outs

José Urquidy: three outs

Urquidy, for his part, set Leody Taveras, Marcus Semien and Corey Seager down in order in the seventh. The Astros have nine outs left to erase an eight-run deficit. A tall order.

Because Bryan Abreu’s two-game suspension won’t be served until next season, here he is in the sixth inning in Game 7. And, guess what: he ran a fastball inside and hit a guy in the ribs. Imagine that.

Except it wasn’t Adolis García. García popped up to start the inning, failing to reach base for the first time today. It was Mitch Garver who was on the wrong end of Abreu’s 98 mph four-seamer. Garver’s gonna have one heck of a bruise tomorrow morning. But, for now, he is remaining in the game and cursing the arbitrator’s decision to let Abreu pitch in this game.

That set the table for Nathaniel Lowe to smash a 3-1 slider for a two-run homer. Right fielder Kyle Tucker had a bead on it, as he did a couple times in Game 6, but the ball tipped off his glove and landed in the seats as he attempted a robbery above the wall.

The Rangers lead, 10-2, and here come the leverage bullpen arms. Josh Sborz was up in the bullpen. Expect to see him take over for Jordan Montgomery in the bottom of the sixth.

A mostly breezy fifth inning for Jordan Montgomery, who is going to get paaaaaaaaaid this offseason when he's a free agent for the first time in a pitching-weak market.

Worked around a single from the inevitable Yordan Alvarez, whose six consecutive multi-hit games is just silly.

Montgomery has thrown 32 pitches in 2 1/3 innings, and the Rangers have had a pair of arms in the bullpen up and ready to pull him if necessary.

Montgomery threw 82 pitches on Friday. He's on three days' rest. Have to imagine Bochy is close to pulling him, though nobody should be shocked if he goes batter-to-batter next time out. Montgomery, wearing No. 52 like former teammate CC Sabathia, is also like Sabathia in that he's a gamer.

Hector Neris made quick work of the Rangers in the fifth inning, but, still, Corey Seager can’t be stopped. Seager — having already homered, doubled and singled — walked off Neris.

Seager’s postseason batting line: .349/.500/.674 with eight extra-base hits and 12 walks (!) to seven strikeouts.

Still an 8-2 ballgame headed to the bottom half of the fifth.

Jordan Montgomery let that inning get a little too interesting. Gave up a one-out, two-strike single to Chas McCormick, and then he fell behind, 3-0, to Jermey Peña, who singled.

Andrew Heaney was up for the Rangers. Yes, he’s a starting pitcher. Yes, he pitched last night. But it was just four pitches of garbage time. Heaney will be ready to go into this game at some point. But will Aroldis Chapman? I digress.

Didn’t matter. Montgomery got out of it, perhaps improbably considering how dangerous Altuve has been all series. Despite getting to 3-1, Altuve made a rare mistake, reaching for a fastball that was at least a full ball-size out of the zone, and lifting it to right field to end the inning.

The Astros have had opportunities tonight. They’re just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and they’ve left five runners on base. How can a team be this bad at home? The world … may never know.

We’ll see how much postseason magic these Astros can muster, because they suddenly find themselves down six after the Rangers scored four times in the fourth inning.

The trouble started with Josh Jung singling to left and Marcus Semien walking. Corey Seager was the best hitter in the league with runners in scoring position during the regular season. He also crushed two fastballs in his first two at-bats in Game 7. So, Astros reliever J.P. France started Seager with a curve. Strike one. But then he tried another curve. Seager was right on it, pulling it hard on the ground. First baseman Jose Abreu dove to his right and deflected the ball, potentially saving a run, but loading the bases.

Evan Carter, the rookie, pulled a France changeup into right field for a two-run double.

With first base open, the Astros opted to pitch to Adolis García. Which … why? He caught a pitch on the handle but pulled it through the hole into left field for a two-run single.

García and Seager are both 3-for-3. The Rangers have put 14 runners on base, and, despite leaving the bases loaded in the fourth, they’re 6 for 10 with runners in scoring position.

Have a day, have a series, have a postseason, Adolis García.

Rangers lead 8-2 in the fourth.

The superstars carry you in the playoffs, and it's happening before our eyes in Game 7. Now it's Alex Bregman, crushing a solo shot off a seemingly cruising Scherzer to slice Texas' lead to 4-2. Bregman hammered a 94-mph fastball hip-high and over the plate — just asking for trouble. Bregman delivered, hammering it 393 feet, a bomb that would have left 23 MLB stadiums, according to Statcast.

That forced the Rangers to get lefty Jordan Montgomery up in the bullpen (shield your eyes, Yankees fans).

But no moves were made, and the monster Yordan Alvarez hit A FREAKING TRIPLE. Yes, a triple. Alvarez is 6-foot-5, 225 pounds, and he expertly stayed on a backdoor curveball, sending it bouncing off the wall in left field.

But that’s when Bochy went to Montgomery, who then forced Brantley to rip a liner to shortstop to end the inning.

Montgomery has been excellent in the playoffs so far this season, coming into the night with a 2.38 ERA in four starts. With a rickety bullpen, Bochy is going to want to ride his big lefty as long as he can.

What a showman, what a heel, that Adolis García.

In his first at-bat, he smashed a ball off the left-field wall, stood there and watched it, then settled for a single.

In his second at-bat, he fell behind early against reliever Hunter Brown, then worked a full count. The third ball was a curveball that went way high and sent García spinning out of the way. That got the crowd amped and booing again. So how did García respond? By bashing a 96 mph fastball the other way, curling it around the right-field foul pole for a solo homer.

This postseason, García is batting .306 with six homers and 17 RBI in just 12 games. He joins 2015 Daniel Murphy, 2020 Giancarlo Stanton and 2004 Carlos Beltrán as the only hitters to homer in four consecutive postseason games, per Sarah Langs.

The Rangers lead, 4-1, as we head to the bottom of the third.