ARLINGTON, Texas — The Astros have put Houston on the Major League Baseball map, but that’s apparently not good enough for the Texas Rangers.
KHOU 11’s Jason Bristol and Matt Musil noticed that when they got to Globe Life Field in Arlington Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s American League Championship Series Game 3 between the Astros and the Rangers.
There's a wooden map on display outside a team store at Globe Life Field. It shows the distances from Arlington to different spots around the state, including College Station, Alvin, Brenham and Liberty. But there’s one big void on it and that's where Houston should be!
Yes, it's a slight to the one Texas team that's actually won a World Series or two, but while the Rangers may not count Houston on their map, they can’t count the defending champs out in the ALCS, even with a 2-0 series lead.
Dusty Baker focusing on the positive
“I deal with positive results,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “And if the negative shows up, then I’ll worry about it when I get there. I’m not thinking about being down 3-0. That’s the last thing on my mind.”
Kyle Tucker working to get out of postseason slump
For Houston to get that positivity that Baker's talking about, they'll have to pick up the offense and right now, that begins with right fielder Kyle Tucker.
Tucker is 2-for-22 with seven strikeouts in the postseason, but his mindset is still one game at a time.
“We just have to come out and win (Wednesday),” he said. “That’s the most important game. We have to focus on that. We’ve got Javi (Cristian Javier) going, so I’m sure he’s going to give us all he has and as long as we play defense and hit well behind him, we’ll be in a good spot.
The Rangers counter Javier with Max Scherzer, who returned to the Rangers ALCS roster after a stint on the injury list due to a muscle strain in his right arm.
The first pitch is at 7:03 p.m.