It's a dream come true: the Texas Rangers are up 2-0 in the ALCS against the Houston Astros. But in this best-of-seven series, there's still plenty of baseball to be played, and even with the Rangers' early lead, nothing is a sure bet.
The Rangers squeaked by the Astros in a 5-4 thriller at Minute Maid Park to win their seventh postseason game. Six of those victories have come on the road, making Texas' road warrior performances even more impressive.
If history is any indication, the Rangers might have sealed the Astros' fate with their Game 2 win. As displayed by an MLB Fox Sports graphic, no team has ever come back to win a league championship series after losing the first two games at home.
Even the dynastic Astros, who for the past seven years have dominated in the postseason and won two World Series titles and four pennants, have not accomplished such a tall feat.
Did Fox Sports just jinx the Rangers by releasing that stat? Stats are just stats after all, but everyone knows baseball isn't a little stitious -- it's superstitious.
Ranger Danger: Astros would become first team in MLB history to win championship series after two home losses
On Wednesday, the Rangers will play Game 3 at home in Arlington hoping to put the penultimate nail in the coffin and go up 3-0 on a postseason favorite.
Texas may not have reached the World Series in over a decade, but their last two wins show just how multifaceted they are; key players like Nate Eovaldi, Jose Leclerc, Jordan Montgomery, and others helped the Rangers get their ideal start in the ALCS. Their depth and pitching will help them see this series against the Astros through, and all eyes are on ace Max Scherzer who will take the mound for his first game of the postseason.
Rarely have the Astros (also successful on the road this year, by the way) found themselves in such a precarious spot in recent postseasons. As they say, there's always a first for everything.
Just four years ago, in the 2019 World Series, the Astros lost their first two games to the Nationals. Then they traveled to Washington and won three straight road games. The Nats ended up winning that championship, yet the moral remains: Don't count out a comeback from one of the most clutch playoff teams in the league.
Texas has everything going for them in this home stretch: Scherzer is back and hopefully locked in for his first glimpse of postseason action. Bruce Bochy's squad recorded the league's fourth-best record at home during the regular season. And not to mention the obvious: the Rangers haven't yet lost a playoff game in October.
They're 7-0 right now, flying high on a fortuitous upturn of events. The Rangers' rollercoaster of a regular season nonetheless showed they were vulnerable to downturns, too, at one point losing eight games in a row.
Will their favorable winning streak continue? Or has their postseason officially been jinxed? Game 3 of the ALCS, here we come.
