The Astros have come roaring back in this ALCS by continuing something they'd been doing during the regular season. That is, kicking the crap out of the Rangers at Globe Life Field. On July 2nd, after having split the first two games of a 4-game set, the Astros beat the Rangers 5-2. They won the series the next day with a crazy 12-11 win in which they'd blown an early 10-2 lead. They fell behind 11-10 in the bottom of the 8th only to score two in the top of the 9th.
Two months later, the Astros returned to Arlington and played that series as if they had received word at the team hotel of some Rangers saying unkind things about their mothers. The Astros absolutely lowered the boom on Texas by crunching them by scores of 13-6, 14-1, and 12-3. The Astros pounded out FIFTY hits in the series and smacked an unbelievable 16 home runs, five of them by Jose Altuve.
This domination has continued this week with the Astros jumping out to big early leads in Games 3 and 4.
Which brings us to this afternoon's Game 5. This is the final road game of the series for the Astros, and there's no better time than right now to take careful note of what these boys have been doing all season on the road, specifically in the final game of a road series. The Astros finished with the third best road record in baseball at 51-30, one game behind the Orioles and the Braves who both went 52-29. Including the playoffs, the Orioles finished 52-30. The Braves finished 52-31. The Astros now stand alone as the best road team in 2023 with a spectacular 55-30 record. But it's the final game of a road series where the Astros were true asskickers. They went an incredible 21-5 in the final game of a road series, 22-5 if you count their Game 4 clincher last week in Minnesota.
That's crazy, but it gets even crazier. That 22-5 record stood at only 7-4 after a 5-0 loss in Cleveland on June 11th. Here are the results of the next 16 road finales for the defending World Series champions:
June 25th - they defeated the Dodgers, 6-5
June 29th - they defeated the Cardinals, 14-0
July 3rd - they defeated the Rangers, 12-11
July 16th - they defeated the Angels, 9-8
July 19th - they defeated the Rockies, 4-1
July 23rd - they defeated the A's, 3-2
August 6th - they defeated the Yankees, 9-7
August 10th - they lost to the Orioles, 5-4
August 16th - they defeated the Marlins, 12-5
August 27th - they defeated the Tigers, 17-4
August 30th - they defeated the Red Sox, 7-4
September 6th - they defeated the Rangers, 12-3
September 17th - they defeated the Royals, 7-1
September 27th - they defeated the Mariners, 8-3
October 1st - they defeated the D-Backs, 8-1
October 11th - they defeated the Twins, 3-2
Wow, winners of 15 of their last 16 road finales. After losing that game in Baltimore on August 10th, they won their last 7 regular season road finales by an average score of 10-3! After the 8-3 win in Seattle on September 27th, Dusty Baker said "We had to have that game. That was another example of how important getaway days are. I don't know what our record is, but it's pretty good. These guys are conscious of it."
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