ALDS Recap

The Lone Star state of Texas will get to watch quite the matchup between AL West foes, the Rangers and the Astros, as they will go head-to-head in the ALCS.

After sweeping the Rays in the Wild Card series, the Rangers took on the No. 1 seed Baltimore Orioles.

The Rangers swept the Orioles, who hadn’t been swept since the call-up of catcher Adley Rutschman in late May last season. Long story short, the biggest factors to the Orioles sweep was a combination of their starting pitching and their youth.

In three games, the Orioles’ starters, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer, combined for just 8.0 IP, 20 hits and 13 earned runs and were hit hard by a potent Rangers’ offense with Bradish being their most reliable starter.

The Rangers’ pitching staff, however, dominated against a young Orioles lineup. The Rangers continued their momentum against the Rays and combined for 14.2 IP and gave up six runs, headlined by Nathan Eovaldi, who pitched seven innings of one-run ball in Game 2.

Offensively, the Rangers brought out their Texas-sized bats and scored 21 runs in the series. The Rangers seemingly had a one-up on the Orioles offensively since they have a mix of young and veteran players with postseason experience in their lineup.

Shortstop Corey Seager continued to show off his postseason value, batting .333 in the series and even had 5 walks in Game 2. Two of the Rangers’ young stars, Josh Jung and September call-up Evan Carter, hit for a combined 8-25 in the ALDS.

The Orioles’ lineup on the other hand is young with no postseason experience. Their hyped-up offense managed to score only 11 runs in three games with their young talent not making much noise throughout.

AL Rookie of the Year candidate, Gunnar Henderson, provided most of the offense for the O’s. He batted .500 in the series with 6 hits and a home run.

Safe to say that while this series didn’t end as planned for the Orioles, it’s clear that this is only the beginning for their young core, and they have a bright future ahead of them.

On the other side of Texas, the Astros knocked out the Twins, winning the series 3-1. While the Twins managed to make some noise, the Astros have continued to dominate in the postseason once again.

The Astros are no strangers to the postseason. With this series win over the Twins, it brings the Astros to their seventh straight ALCS appearance.

Houston’s strongest suit is their offense. Backed by a strong core where several players in their lineup have years of experience in the postseason as they continue to dominate their opponents’ pitching, especially slugger Yordan Alvarez.

In four games, Alvarez hit .438 with four home runs and six RBI and was an overall menace to the Twins’ pitching staff. Alvarez was also backed by Jose Abreu and Alex Bregman, who combined for four home runs and 10 RBI in the series

While the Twins may not have the same player core as Houston, they do have some underrated hitters in their lineup who had notable hits throughout the series.

Former Astro Carlos Correa made his first postseason with the Twins, and during the series hit .400 with three RBI. The Twins made a valiant effort behind some of their underrated hitters such as Royce Lewis who, despite only batting .188, hit two home runs in the series, along with second baseman Edouard Julien, who hit .364 with one home run.

On the pitching side, Houston’s pitching shut down the Twins. Namely, Justin Verlander, who pitched 6.0 innings, with zero earned runs and six strikeouts and Christian Javier, with 5.0 IP, zero earned runs and nine strikeouts. Four pitchers started for Houston and gave up a combined 7 ER with 21.0 IP. Houston’s rotation just dominated the Twins, it’s pretty simple.

Minnesota, however, only got one quality start out of their starters from Pablo López, with 7.0 IP, zero earned runs and seven strikeouts during Game 2, which happened to be the only game the Twins won in this series. The rest of the Twins’ rotation was hit hard by the Astros’ lineup, especially Sonny Gray and Bailey Ober, who gave up a combined 10 earned runs.

Caitlyn Brooks is a first-year majoring in Digital and Print Journalism. Contact her at crb6283@psu.edu.