ARLINGTON, Texas — Everything is certainly bigger deep in the heart of Texas in this year’s MLB playoffs, thanks to a Lone Star State showdown for a spot in the World Series.
The Houston Astros, the reigning champions, are no stranger to playing long into October; they’re getting ready for their seventh consecutive American League Championship Series. This time, the Astros play the up-and-coming Texas Rangers, who led them in the AL West Division standings for most of the season but again didn’t fare well in the head-to-head matchups.
Both benches and bullpens cleared the last time the two teams played in Houston, where the ALCS opener will take place Sunday night.
“There’s a lot of intensity. … I’d say we’re rivals,” first-year Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, who led the San Francisco Giants to three World Series titles, said Thursday. “That’s the way baseball should be, I guess. They’re your opponent, so I don’t think it should be a lovefest out there.”
That’s especially true with so much at stake when the in-state foes meet in the playoffs for the first time. Houston didn’t move from the National League to the AL until the 2013 season — two years after the Rangers made back-to-back appearances in the World Series — and Texas missed the playoffs the past six years.