*Photo from DraftKings Network*
Texas leads series 1-0
Pitching has been big for this team all postseason long. Leody Taveras homered, Jordan Montgomery dominated, and the Texas Rangers defeated the Houston Astros with a 2-0 shutout victory on Sunday night in Houston.
Making their first ALCS appearance since 2011, the Rangers outpitched the Astros, with Montgomery dazzling on the mound. The Rangers were limited in the batters box as well, but two runs were all they needed to pick up the series opening win.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said that "We just found a way to get a couple of runs across the board. That was the difference in the game, obviously. But our guy was really good, Monty, terrific job he did. And he got in a couple of jams there and found a way to get out of it."
The Rangers got on the board in the game early on. In the second inning, Jonah Heim gave them a 1-0 lead, hitting an RBI single that scored Evan Carter from second base. It stayed 1-0 until the 5th inning, when Taveras gave the Rangers a key insurance run. He hit a solo home run to right field, doubling the Rangers lead to 2-0, which they held on to.
Rangers infielder Josh Jung said "Game 1 is a pivotal game in every series. For us, going out there, not necessarily clicking on all cylinders offensively and being able to take this game is huge. Confidence-wise, yes. Switching home-field advantage per se is also huge. Game 1 in any series is huge, so being able to do that here with the crowd, it just definitely builds our confidence."
Montgomery was the starter for the Rangers and dominated the Astros. He allowed 5 hits and one walk, striking out 6 hitters over 6 1/3 shutout innings. Josh Sborz worked the last two outs of the 7th before Aroldis Chapman and Jose Leclerc threw a scoreless inning each to close out the win.
Getting the start for the Astros was Justin Verlander, who was tagged with two runs on 6 hits and two walks in 6 2/3 innings pitched. Hector Neris pitched the next 1 1/3 innings before Bryan Abreu pitched one scoreless inning.
Verlander said after the game "I was a bit erratic the first couple of innings, especially fastball control. I thought it cleaned up as the game went along. I kind of started finding my groove there the last few innings. Obviously, one bad pitch, it resulted in another run to Taveras there. Overall I thought as the game went along, it got better and better."
Game two of the ALCS is on Monday afternoon. Nathan Eovaldi takes the mound for the Rangers as they look to take a 2-0 lead on the series, while the Astros look to even the series as Framber Valdez gets the start.
Comments
Post a Comment