Texas Rangers Finally Home, Host Houston Astros in ALCS Game 3 With World Series in Sight

The Texas Rangers hold a 2-0 lead over the Houston Astros with the American League Championship Series shifting to Arlington.

The Texas Rangers are three rounds into the playoffs and just two wins from advancing to the World Series, yet only one postseason game has been played at Globe Life Field in this postseason.

That’s about change, with Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros being Wednesday night at 7:03 p.m. in Arlington. The fourth game of the best-of-seven series is Thursday with Game 5, if necessary, on Friday.

“It’s definitely one game at a time,” Marcus Semien said after Texas went up 2-0 in the series with a 5-4 win Monday. “We’ve only had one game at home, we played extremely well. So it will be fun to get back in front of the home crowd.

“With that being said, Houston has been playing well in that building, too. We need to buckle down when we get there and play some good baseball like we’ve been doing.”

The Texas Rangers are two wins away from reaching the World Series / © Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

The Astros swept the Rangers in Arlington in September.

Max Scherzer is making his postseason debut for Texas after coming off the injured list, with Cristian Javier going for Houston. The odds are with the Rangers returning to the World Series for the first time since 2011.

Teams to take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven postseason series have gone on to win the series 75 of 89 times (84.2%), including 31 of 35 times in the LCS (88.6%). Teams taking a 2-0 lead on the road in a seven-game series have gone on to win 24 of 28 times (85.7%), including 13 of 14 times (92.9%) in the LCS.

The only club to lose an LCS after taking a 2-0 “road” lead was the 2020 Atlanta Braves against the Los Angeles Dodgers, though that entire series took place at Globe Life Field during the COVID pandemic.

The previous home game was the AL Division Series-clinching 7-1 over the Baltimore Orioles on Oct. 10 in front of a Globe Life Field record crowd of 40,891. This is also just the Rangers’ second postseason game in the stadium, which opened in 2020.

The Rangers are 10-16 (.385) all-time in postseason home games, the third-lowest home win percentage of any franchise in MLB history to the Colorado Rockies (.300, 3-7) and Chicago Cubs (.350, 21-39). Texas has lost five of six at home, but is 10-9 in Arling­ton beginning with the 2010 ALCS Game 2 against the New York Yankees. The Rangers lost the first seven home playoff games in franchise history.

Texas is 5-1 all-time in ALCS home games (all in 2010-11), winning five straight since dropping first such contest in the 2010 ALCS Game 1 against the Yankees. All of those contests took place at the now-retired Globe Life Park across the street.

Will Rangers Get Maximum Scherzer in Game 3?

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