Plenty at stake as contending Rangers, Astros clash

A pair of American League West rivals that took a step in the wrong direction in their respective playoff races on Sunday get a chance to reverse course when Texas Rangers and host Houston Astros open a critical three-game series on Monday night.

Right-handers Jack Leiter (9-8, 3.81 ERA) of the Rangers and Jason Alexander (4-1, 2.82 with Houston, 4.19 overall) of the Astros will get the ball rolling in the teams' final head-to-head set. Up 6-4, the Rangers need one win in the set to clinch the season series, which could turn into an important tiebreaker.

The Rangers had two narrow wins and one lopsided defeat when the American League West and AL wild-card contenders met Sept. 5-7 in Arlington. Neither Leiter nor Alexander pitched in that series.

Houston (81-69) begins the week in second place in the West, one game behind the Seattle Mariners (82-68) with 12 to go. The two had been tied atop the division before the Astros were beaten 8-3 in Atlanta on Sunday, hours before the Mariners thumped the Los Angeles Angels at home.

The Rangers will take the field three games behind the Mariners and two back of the Astros. The latter is doubly important in that the Astros currently reside in an AL wild-card position, while the Rangers do not.

The Mariners visit Houston for a three-game showdown Friday through Sunday. The Astros hope to be in better shape physically by then.

They haven't had Isaac Paredes since July 19 because of a hamstring injury. But the slugging third baseman has been working out in Florida with the hopes of returning before the end of the regular season, perhaps as early as later this week.

Houston manager Joe Espada then had to pull Jose Altuve from Saturday's game against the Braves with a foot injury. Astros general manager Dana Brown disclosed on the team's pregame show Sunday that the setback is expected to be a minor one.

"We're not concerned; our medical staff is not concerned," Brown announced, believing Altuve would miss "a day or two, two days tops."

The team sparkplug did not play Sunday in Atlanta.

The Rangers (79-71), meanwhile, had a chance to close the gap on the Astros on Sunday but fell 5-2 in 10 innings on the road against the New York Mets. Texas had won the first two games of the series to run its winning streak to six.

If Texas has an advantage in the series, it's that it appears the Rangers' latest injury concern is no longer valid. Adolis Garcia returned from a 10-game absence due to a strained right quad to bat cleanup in New York on Sunday.

He went 0-for-4, but the good news outweighed the bad.

"He was really swinging the bat well when he got hurt," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy assured reporters Sunday. "He is a guy that hits in the heart of our order. It's great to have him."

Leiter is 1-0 with a 4.38 ERA in 12 1/3 innings over two career starts against the Astros, while Alexander has never faced the Rangers.

--Field Level Media