Game 6 tonight at 7:05. Derek Holland versus Max Scherzer. If the Rangers win, we're going back to the World Series. Lose, and we have Game 7 tomorrow.
While it would have been nice to close it out in Detroit, that would have been something of an upset...I remember seeing very few "Texas in 4/Texas in 5" predictions. When I was on the Replacement Level Podcast earlier this week, I said I thought the Rangers would lose game 3, take game 4, then fall to Verlander in game 5 before winning game 6 at home to finish the Tigers off.
So I'm not going to start sweating unless something goes wrong today.
Jeff Wilson has a story about Derek Holland still being young and inexperienced, and it includes this mechanical explanation for what was going wrong in Game 2:
That said, Holland has been good more often than not this season. The percentages say we'll get the good Holland tonight. Let's cross our fingers and hope that's the case.
Anthony Andro looks at how up and down Holland's performances have been this year, and writes that Holland wants to get this team to the World Series.
Evan Grant has a piece behind the paywall explaining why the Rangers are a good bet to win today.
Drew Davison writes that Nelson Cruz is having an ALCS for the ages.
T.R. Sullivan has a story about Scott Feldman coming back from injuries to be a significant contributor in the playoffs for Texas.
One of the things that I'm kind of wondering at this point is whether Feldman is forcing himself back into the conversation as a serious rotation option for 2012. I had posited before that Feldman would be the #6 guy, the guy who would be penciled in as the long man but who would have a chance to jump into the rotation if someone got hurt in spring training. I'm starting to wonder now if he might legitimately be in the mix from day one this spring.
Gil Lebreton writes that the Rangers have a chance to close this out at home.
The S-T's notes talk about the Rangers having a workout yesterday, which everyone but the walking wounded -- Josh Hamilton and Adrian Beltre -- attended, the Rangers feeling there isn't pressure on them, and Alexi Ogando and Mike Adams being ready to go today if they are needed.
The Ranger website notes also talk about yesterday's workout, Michael Young coming out of his slump, Mark Lowe hoping to be available next round, and Andres Blanco likely not being available next round.
Andro writes that Yoshinori Tateyama has been learning English quickly from his teammates.