A pair of American League West rivals that took a step within the mistaken path of their respective playoff races on Sunday get an opportunity to reverse course when Texas Rangers and host Houston Astros open a crucial three-game sequence on Monday evening.
Proper-handers Jack Leiter (9-8, 3.81 ERA) of the Rangers and Jason Alexander (4-1, 2.82 with Houston, 4.19 general) of the Astros will get the ball rolling within the groups’ closing head-to-head set. Up 6-4, the Rangers want one win within the set to clinch the season sequence, which might flip into an necessary tiebreaker.
The Rangers had two slender wins and one lopsided defeat when the American League West and AL wild-card contenders met Sept. 5-7 in Arlington. Neither Leiter nor Alexander pitched in that sequence.
Houston (81-69) begins the week in second place within the West, one sport behind the Seattle Mariners (82-68) with 12 to go. The 2 had been tied atop the division earlier than the Astros had been crushed 8-3 in Atlanta on Sunday, hours earlier than the Mariners thumped the Los Angeles Angels at house.
The Rangers will take the sector three video games behind the Mariners and two again of the Astros. The latter is doubly necessary in that the Astros at the moment reside in an AL wild-card place, whereas the Rangers don’t.
The Mariners go to Houston for a three-game showdown Friday by means of Sunday. The Astros hope to be in higher form bodily by then.
They have not had Isaac Paredes since July 19 due to a hamstring damage. However the slugging third baseman has been figuring out in Florida with the hopes of returning earlier than the top of the common season, maybe as early as later this week.
Houston supervisor Joe Espada then needed to pull Jose Altuve from Saturday’s sport in opposition to the Braves with a foot damage. Astros common supervisor Dana Brown disclosed on the crew’s pregame present Sunday that the setback is predicted to be a minor one.
“We’re not involved; our medical employees just isn’t involved,” Brown introduced, believing Altuve would miss “a day or two, two days tops.”
The crew sparkplug didn’t play Sunday in Atlanta.
The Rangers (79-71), in the meantime, had an opportunity to shut the hole on the Astros on Sunday however fell 5-2 in 10 innings on the street in opposition to the New York Mets. Texas had received the primary two video games of the sequence to run its profitable streak to 6.
If Texas has a bonus within the sequence, it is that it seems the Rangers’ newest damage concern is now not legitimate. Adolis Garcia returned from a 10-game absence attributable to a strained proper quad to bat cleanup in New York on Sunday.
He went 0-for-4, however the excellent news outweighed the unhealthy.
“He was actually swinging the bat properly when he bought damage,” Rangers supervisor Bruce Bochy assured reporters Sunday. “He’s a man that hits within the coronary heart of our order. It is nice to have him.”
Leiter is 1-0 with a 4.38 ERA in 12 1/3 innings over two profession begins in opposition to the Astros, whereas Alexander has by no means confronted the Rangers.
–Area Stage Media
