The Texas Rangers were looking to bounce back Thursday in Game 4 of the AL Championship Series after suffering their first loss of the 2023 postseason but fell to the Houston Astros.
The streaky Texas Rangers are suddenly headed the wrong way again.
The 10-3 loss to the Houston Astros in Game 4 on Thursday night that evened the AL Championship Series at 2-all was the second defeat in a row for Texas — both at home — after a 7-0 postseason start.
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Now Texas has to stop the Astros' seven-game winning streak at Globe Life Field in Game 5 on Friday, or the defending champs would go home needing one win for a third consecutive World Series trip.
Not that going home is much of a comfort for Houston, just 40-45 at Minute Maid Park, postseason included.
Neither home team has taken a lead in the first four games of the first postseason meeting between the instate AL West rivals.
Texas fell behind 3-0 as Andrew Heaney got just two outs in the shortest start of the 32-year-old left-hander's big league career. After Corey Seager's third-inning solo homer got Texas even, the Astros immediately scored four more, capped by José Abreu's three-run homer in the fourth.
MLB
The Rangers won the first two in Houston and matched the Astros' 7-0 start in the playoffs last year, when Houston won its second championship.
Now Texas is flirting with a fifth losing streak of at least three games since the All-Star break. It would match the number of winning streaks of at least six games in the same span.
The Rangers had a 20-game stretch in September when they lost four games in a row, won six, lost four and then won six more. That up-and-down stretch began with Houston sweeping Texas at Globe Life Field, hitting 16 homers while outscoring the Rangers 39-10.
Texas played six of its first seven games on the road this postseason, winning twice in Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Houston.
The Rangers are 1-2 at home in these playoffs, and 10-18 in franchise history. That .357 winning percentage is the third-lowest for the postseason in major league history.
Houston has never rallied from a 2-0 deficit and will have Justin Verlander on the mound for the final game of the series in Arlington. It's a rematch with Jordan Montgomery from Texas' 2-0 win in Game 1.
UP NEXT
Here is the schedule for the ALCS.
- *Game 5: Astros vs. Rangers, Friday, Oct. 20, 4:07 p.m. CT
- *Game 6: Rangers vs. Astros, Sunday, Oct. 22, 7:03 p.m. CT
- *Game 7: Rangers vs. Astros, Monday, Oct. 23, 7:03 p.m. CT
*If necessary