Month of MLB: Day 22

From 1903 to 2018, there was never a best of seven post-season series in MLB where the road team won every game.  Now it has happened twice, and both times the loser was Houston.  When the game started, the Astros seemed to have the advantage.  Texas was mostly out of pitchers, and had to rely on Max Scherzer (13-6, 3.77 ERA) to start the game.  Scherzer is an all-time great, but he had only thrown four innings since September 12, and you couldn't expect him to last very long.  And Scherzer didn't last long -- he throw only 2 2/3 innings, and he gave up two runs in that short stint.  But it didn't matter, because by then the roof had fallen in on Houston.  The Astros started Cristian Javier (10-5, 4.56 ERA) and he was terrible.  In only 1/3 of an inning, he gave up four hits and three earned runs.

Javier's failure wrecked the Houston bullpen.  So in the fourth inning, with Texas up 4-2, the Astros had J.P. France (11-6, 3.83 ERA) on the mound.  Under normal circumstances, France is a second-tier starter.  He did fine in Game Two, holding the Rangers to one hit and no runs in 2 1/3 innings.  But here's what happened in the fourth inning yesterday:

1.  Josh Jung singled to left

2.  Leody Taveras struck out (1 out)

3.  Marcus Semien walked (runners on first and second)

4.  Corey Seager singled to first (bases loaded)

Now at this point, I thought the Astros had to either pull France or say goodbye to their chances.  But maybe they didn't have any good options left, because they stuck with France.  So here's what happened:

5.  Evan Carter doubled to right (2 runs score) (runners on second and third)

That made the score 6-2, and even here I thought the Astros might salvage something if they replace France.  Besides, the batter was now Adolis Garcia, who already had a single and a home run in this game.  On the radio, the ESPN team thought for sure that France would walk Garcia, given the open base on first.  But France did not walk Garcia.

6.  Adolis Garcia singled to left (2 runs score) (runner on first)

And that made it 8-2.  On ESPN radio, Eduardo Perez -- who had been pleading with the Astros to walk Garcia, and who had basically predicted that at a minimum, France would pitch around Garcia -- said, "Well, I don't really have anything to say here."  And who can blame him?

So that's how the Texas Rangers won their third American League Pennant, and how Bruce Bochy ran his post-season record to 6-0 in winner-take-all games.  Garcia hit another home run in the 8th, and the Rangers rolled to an easy 11-4 win.

That means that the League Championship Series look like this:

Philadelphia 3 - 3 Arizona

Houston 3 - 4 Texas

I do love Game Sevens in baseball, and we don't get them very often.  Unless you count the COVID year -- and I don't -- last night was the first Game Seven since the Nats beat the Astros in the 2019 World Series.  So I wish last night's game had been more competitive.  But one thing about modern baseball:  once these teams get into the weak part of your bullpen, it is all over.

Amazingly, we get another Game Seven tonight in Philadelphia.  Let's hope it's close.