Rangers Sweep Orioles, Advance to ALCS

October 10, 2023

Rangers 7, Orioles 1

ARLINGTON, Tex. (Oct 10) — The Texas Rangers‘ bats came to life on Tuesday, as they beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7–1. Home runs by Corey Seager, Adolis Garcia, and Nathaniel Lowe helped the Rangers cap off the ALDS sweep of the Orioles. With this convincing win, the Rangers were able to punch their ticket to the ALCS in front of a sellout crowd of 40,861 at Globe Life Field. Now they must play the waiting game to see if they will face the Minnesota Twins or the Houston Astros in the League Championship Series, which is set to get under way on Sunday, October 15. The Astros hold a 2–1 lead over the Twins in the ALDS and can potentially close out the series Wednesday in Minneapolis.

Rangers Bats Show Up

Much of the capacity crowd was still locating their seats when Seager blasted his first home run of the postseason. It was a solo shot to right-center off righty Dean Kremer. It was Seager’s eighth career postseason homer.

The Rangers added two more in the bottom of the second. A single to left by Josh Jung and a double to left by Marcus Semien brought Mitch Garver to the plate. Garver plated Jung and Semien with a double to the shortstop to make it 3–0 Rangers. On deck was Garcia, who promptly hit a three-run dinger to left-center, his second of the postseason.

Seager reached on an intentional walk earlier in the inning. He walked in each of his first three plate appearances in Game Two of the ALDS in Baltimore. The only other batters in major league history to reach safely three-plus times in the first four games of a postseason were Frank Thomas (1993), Edgar Martinez (1995), and David Ortiz (2007). With Nathan Eovaldi pitching for the Rangers, the Orioles picked up a consolation run in the top of the fifth. A single to right by Gunnar Henderson drove in Jordan Westburg. The Rangers added a seventh run in the bottom of the sixth. Lowe, who had a 15-pitch at-bat off Kremer earlier in the game, hit a solo shot to right-center off Orioles reliever, and former Ranger, Kyle Gibson.

Seven Strong Innings by Eovaldi

Eovaldi put forth yet another heroic effort in this one. He earned the win in the series-clincher after tossing seven innings of one-run ball. His final line was 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R-ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 98 pitches/76 strikes. Eovaldi now owns two of the five series-clinching wins by a starting pitcher in Rangers postseason history. The others are Cliff Lee (2010), Colby Lewis (2010), and Matt Harrison (2011). Eovaldi also won Game Two of the 2023 American League Wild Card Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. He is the only Rangers pitcher with two such wins. Eovaldi is now 2–0 with an ERA of 1.32 and 15 strikeouts through two starts this postseason. The seven innings on Tuesday matched Eovaldi’s postseason career high. He also tossed seven frames in Game Three of the 2018 ALDS against the New York Yankees as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

On the other side, Kremer was dealt the loss for the Orioles in his postseason debut. His line was 1 2/3 IP, 7 H, 6 R-ER, 1 IBB, 2 HR, 53 pitches/37 strikes. It marked the second consecutive outing of 1 2/3 innings by an Orioles starter. Grayson Rodriguez also threw 1 2/3 innings against the Rangers on Sunday in Baltimore. Kremer and Rodriguez each made the shortest postseason starts by an Oriole since Dennis Martínez in Game Four the 1979 World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates (1 1/3 IP). Kremer’s 15 pitches thrown to Lowe during his at-bat in the third are the most thrown by an Orioles pitcher in postseason history since Chris Tillman threw 14 pitches to Ian Kinsler during Game One of the 2014 ALDS against the Detroit Tigers.

Bruce Bochy’s Postgame Comments

There were a lot of smiles and champagne drenched Rangers personnel to go around in the interview room after the game. First up was manager Bruce Bochy, who reflected on that first phone call last year with Rangers general manager Chris Young about taking the helm of this club. “I’m not surprised at where we’re at,” Bochy said. “That’s because of Chris’ hard work and determination to make this a better ball club. He has a lot of pride growing up here, he wanted to bring winning baseball back to Texas. What a great job he’s done.”

“Even though you talk about it, to be here, you realize how fortunate, at least personally, I am to be sitting here and be part of this and be part of that team,” Bochy reiterated postgame. “Again, I can’t say enough of what they did here the last week and really all year. So to be part of it, I’m blessed.” With this win, Bochy becomes the seventh manager to reach the LCS with three or more franchises. (Others: San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants)

Nathan Eovaldi’s Postgame Comments

Eovaldi, an Alvin, Texas native, also gave his thoughts on his performance after the game. “To me, pitching wins championships,” Eovaldi said. “You’ve seen it across the league. Good pitching is able to neutralize a good lineup. I feel like that’s what we’ve been able to do here lately. … Moving forward, again, pitching, you can never have enough good starting pitching. I feel like that’s been one of our big reasons for our success.”