Astros and Rangers battled for the American League West crown for 162 games and both finished with 90 wins, with Houston taking the division flag on the season’s final day because of its better head-to-head record.
After six games of the ALCS, the Lone Star State rivals are deadlocked once again -- with one game remaining to decide a berth in the World Series.
Rangers 84-41.
Leclerc largely eschewed his fastball and unleashed his cutter on Dubón and pinch-hitter Jon Singleton, getting Dubón on a soft liner to short.
Singleton, who drew a key Game 5 walk Friday that preceded Altuve’s blast, worked a full count before flailing at a cutter on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, ending the threat.
Leclerc stomped off the mound, screamed, redeemed for the moment.
Garcia provided the delicious, avenging coda.
The Astros had all the momentum after erasing a 2-0 deficit to the Texas Rangers in the series by taking three straight on the road in Arlington. Jose Altuvé's clutch ninth-inning home run in Game 5 — after benches cleared in the eighth when Bryan Abreu hit Adolis Garcia — seemed like a knockout blow that the Rangers could never recover from.
Astros, who are 5-0 on the road this postseason, won three in a row in Arlington wearing their orange jerseys to move within a win of reaching their third consecutive World Series. But those orange tops didn’t help them carry their road magic home as they fell to 1-4 in Houston this postseason after posting a 39-42 mark at Minute Maid Park in the regular season.
The home team has lost each game in the series, a trend the Astros will need to reverse in Game 7 on Monday -- the biggest baseball game in the state’s history -- to advance to the World Series for the fourth time in five years and third year in a row. The Astros will send Cristian Javier to the mound in the winner-take-all game
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