ARLINGTON, Texas— The Texas Rangers are back in the AL championship series and waiting for an opponent.
This is a team that didn’t win a postseason series in the franchise’s first 49 seasons before getting to the World Series last year. Now the Rangers have advanced in the playoffs two years in a row.
“We committed ourselves to a goal [last spring] and they made it to that goal, we are getting another opportunity to play to go to the World Series,” manager Ron Washington said Wednesday, a day after the Rangers wrapped up their AL division series with a 4-3 victory at Tampa Bay.
“I don’t see where it gives us any advantage,” he said. “The only thing it does, we certainly know what we have to do. I think our guys are more aware of getting to this point is not where we want to be. We want to be playing in the World Series.”
Game 1 of the AL championship series is Saturday. For the Rangers, it will be either an ALCS rematch starting at the New York Yankees or at home against Detroit.
The Tigers and Yankees play the deciding Game 5 of their AL division series Thursday night in New York.
Before last year, the entire postseason history for the Rangers - who began as the Washington Senators from 1961-71 - consisted of playing the Yankees in the AL division series three times in the second half of the 1990s with nine losses in a row.
Texas won its first playoff game 15 years ago at old Yankee Stadium before New York won three in a row to clinch that series. The Yankees swept the 1998 and 1999 series, outscoring Texas 23-2 in those six games. New York went to the World Series all three times.
Fittingly, the Rangers clinched their first World Series berth after beating the Yankees in a six-game AL championship series last October before losing in five games to the San Francisco.
Texas backed up its first AL pennant by setting a franchise record with 96 wins this season. They have won three AL playoff series in a row after eliminating the Rays in four games.
“You don’t accomplish things like that unless you’ve got a lot of people with the same vision pulling hard and pulling together,” said general manager Jon Daniels, who is wrapping up his sixth season in that position.
During the regular season, the Rangers struggled against both Detroit and New York.
Texas was 2-7 and outscored 62-35 by the Yankees, including a 1-5 mark in New York. CC Sabathia beat the Rangers twice this season and in Game 5 in last year’s series.
The Rangers were 3-6 against Detroit. The winning pitcher for all three Texas victories was Alexi Ogando, who is now in the bullpen instead of the rotation for the playoffs.
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