The Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros meet Sunday in MLB postseason action from Minute Maid Park. This will be the opener in a best-of-seven American League Championship Series playoff. Texas has won five straight postseason games, taking out the Rays and the Orioles in sweeps along the way to the ALCS. As for Houston, they beat the Twins three games to one in their Division Series versus the Twins. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Texas Rangers 

The Rangers finished just behind the Astros (via tiebreakers) in the AL West standings at 90-72 overall this year and earned a Wild Card spot against the Rays. Texas took care of Tampa Bay 4-0 and 7-1, then moved on to the Division series against the Orioles. The Rangers swept that one as well 3-2, 11-8 and 7-1. In Tuesday’s Game 3 victory, Texas got home runs from Corey Seager (two runs), Adolis Garcia (three RBI) and Nathaniel Lowe along the way. 

In the starting pitcher slot for Game 1 on Sunday, the Rangers will go with Jordan Montgomery. This year Montgomery went 10-11 with a 3.20 ERA in 32 regular-season starts. Montgomery is 1-0 with a 2.55 ERA in four games (three starts) over his postseason career. 

Texas Rangers Team Facts

• The Rangers have lost each of their last 10 games at Minute Maid Park following a win.
• The Rangers have covered the run line in each of their last 10 games as road underdogs following a win.
• The Rangers have led after 5 innings in each of their last four playoff games as underdogs.
• The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Rangers’ last four games as underdogs against AL West opponents.
• The Rangers have led after 7 innings in each of their last four playoff games as underdogs.

Houston Astros 

Over on the Astros’ side, they posted a 90-72 regular-season record this year as well, taking the division crown with a 9-4 record versus Texas this year. That effort earned Houston a Division Series matchup with the Twins which the Astros took 3-1. In Houston’s 3-2 clincher on Wednesday, Jose Abreu (two RBI; two hits) and Michael Brantley provided all three of the RBI with home runs. Yordan Alvarez managed a hit and a run as well. 

It’ll be Justin Verlander in the starter role for the Astros in Game 1 of the ALCS. Verlander went 13-8 with a 3.22 ERA in 27 regular-season starts this year. In his postseason career, Verlander has gone 17-11 with a 3.54 ERA in 36 games (35 starts). 

Houston Astros Team Facts

• The underdogs have won seven of the last eight games between the Rangers and Astros.
• The underdogs have covered the run line in each of the last eight games between the Rangers and Astros.
• The Astros have lost the first inning in four of their last six games as favorites against AL West opponents.
• The Astros have trailed after 3 innings in seven of their last eight games as favorites against AL West opponents.
• The Astros have trailed after 5 innings in each of their last five night games at Minute Maid Park against American League opponents.

Matchup/League Facts

• The Houston Astros rank 3rd in the league for hits this season (1441).
• The Houston Astros rank 3rd in the league for strikeouts against this season (1241).
• The Texas Rangers rank 2nd in the league for hits this season (1470).
• The Texas Rangers rank 2nd in the league for doubles this season (326).

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’ll probably lean toward the Astros at home in this one, but we should have a pretty great series here regardless. Houston should get a nice start out of Verlander, who finished off the regular season with just one earned over 13.0 innings in two starts, going 2-0 in that pair. Verlander set up the Astros well in his Game 1 start versus the Twins back on October 7, going 6.0 clean innings with four hits, three walks and six strikeouts. 

Texas won’t go quietly, though. The Rangers offense has been great so far this postseason with seven or more runs in three of five games and 32 runs scored total. Defensively Texas has given up more than two runs just once in those five games, so scoring should be at a premium initially. The Rangers should be in good shape with Montgomery on the mound. Montgomery finished off the season with just two earned over his final 20.0 innings and bagged a win over the Rays in the Wild Card opener back on October 3. (He’ll need to bounce back from four earned in 4.0 innings versus the Orioles in his last start, though.) Should be a good series overall, but I like Houston to strike first.