![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/justin-verlander-tigers-9012.jpg\")
<\/a>Texas is just a game away from returning to the World Series for a second consecutive year, posting a 7-3 win Wednesday night and taking a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.\u00a0 \u201cIf you don\u2019t like baseball, you probably like it now watching these games,\u201d commented Rangers catcher Mike Napoli.\u00a0 \u201cWe expected a tough series.\u201d\u00a0 The Rangers have tallied an 8-4 record over the last two postseasons.\u00a0 Outfielder Nelson Cruz continues to be a major story offensively, becoming the first player in MLB history to hit two extra-inning home runs in the same postseason series.\u00a0 He has four home runs and nine RBIs in four games.\u00a0 Texas is 28-24 in day games this season and the \u2018over\u2019 is 26-25 in those contests.<\/p>\n
Rangers starting pitcher C.J. Wilson will be making his third start of the postseason, coming in with an 0-1 record and 7.46 ERA.\u00a0 He allowed two runs and six hits over 4 2\/3 innings in leading the team to a 3-2 home win over the Tigers in Game 1.\u00a0 The left-hander tallied an 8-5 mark and 2.31 ERA in 18 road starts during the regular season, as opponents hit just .219 against him.\u00a0 Wilson came into this series with seven career appearances (one start) versus the Tigers, posting an 0-1 record and 5.56 ERA.<\/p>\n
Detroit has its back up against the wall, but nobody is expecting the team to give up without a fight.\u00a0 \u201cWe battled as long as we could,\u201d commented Tigers utility player Brandon Inge.\u00a0 \u201cIt just didn\u2019t work out for us.\u00a0 Out of 32 teams to face 3-1 deficits in the LCS, six have come back to win it, including four in the ALCS.\u00a0 It would be a disappointing end to a season that saw the club hammer opponents in September, while also having the AL batting champion and potentially the Cy Young Award winner.\u00a0 Detroit is 40-25 in day games and the \u2018over\u2019 is 32-30 in that span.<\/p>\n
Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander has been far from his dominant self in the playoffs, posting a 1-1 record and 5.54 ERA in three starts, but two of those have been plagued by rain.\u00a0 The right-hander tallied an impressive 10-3 mark and 2.37 ERA in 16 home starts during the regular season, as opponents managed to hit just .198 against him.\u00a0 He was handed a 3-2 road loss in Game 1 of the series, allowing three runs and five hits over four frames in a rain-shortened effort.<\/p>\n
Bettors will likely back the Tigers due to their 41-15 record as a home favorite with Verlander on the hill, while the Rangers are 2-5 in Wilson\u2019s last seven efforts as a road underdog.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t forget to check out the latest MLB playoff odds at Bookmaker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Texas Rangers can close out the Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park Texas Rangers at Detroit Tigers Texas is just a game away from returning to the World Series for a second consecutive year, posting a 7-3 win Wednesday night and taking a 3-1 lead in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[3373,1396,48,104,771],"class_list":["post-18549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-alcs","tag-c-j-wilson","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-justin-verlander","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18550,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18549\/revisions\/18550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}