THE Texas Rangers took the hard route after blowing a 2 1/2-game lead in the American League West in the final week of the regular season and landing in the wild-card round.
Five consecutive victories later, the Rangers are headed to the AL Championship Series after a solid 7-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) at Arlington, Texas.
Texas swept the Tampa Bay Rays in two games in an AL wild-card series before outscoring the Orioles 21-11 in three AL Division Series contests.
The Rangers are headed to their first ALCS since making back-to-back World Series appearances in 2010 and ‘11.
“We regrouped on that flight,” Texas star Corey Seager said of a trip from Seattle following the end of the regular season to Tampa Bay to start the playoffs. “We wanted to punch our ticket (as AL West champion) and we didn’t. We wanted to finish it off and try to win the division, but it didn’t happen. We moved on really fast, and we knew we had an opportunity in front of us.”
In the other game, Jose Abreu hit one postseason home run in nine seasons with his former team.
He hit two homers with his new club, helping the Astros cruise to a 9-1 win over the Minnesota Twins in Game 3 of the American League Division Series, moving Houston one victory away from advancing.
The former Chicago White Sox slugger finished 2-for-5 with five RBIs.
“This is a ballpark that I know well,” Abreu said.
Yordan Alvarez finished 3-for-5 with two doubles, a homer, and an RBI for the Astros, who grabbed a 2-1 advantage in the best-of-five series. Alex Bregman went 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBIs.
Seager hit one of three Rangers’ homers in the club’s first home game of the postseason. Adolis Garcia smacked a three-run homer, Nathaniel Lowe also went deep, and Mitch Garver contributed a two-run double for Texas.
Garver, Garcia and Josh Jung each had two hits for the Rangers.
Willi Castro drove in the lone run for the Twins, who lost at home for the first time in three games this postseason.
