Major League Baseball

Rangers-Astros by the numbers: ALCS numerical preview

Published Oct. 14, 2023 8:50 a.m. ET

And then there were two.

The American League West has flexed its muscle, with both teams in the ALCS representing the division.

The Astros are back for a seventh straight season. On the other side, the Rangers are back in the ALCS for the first time since 2011 on the back of a dynamic offense and pitching that has exceeded expectations and overcome injuries in the playoffs. They will need to overcome more than that, though, as they posted just a 4-9 record against the Stros in the regular season.

Here are some other numbers that may help convey how this series stacks up:

.251: This series will likely come down to who can pitch better, but in the games they have met recently, each team has produced similar offensive results, with each producing a .251 batting average.

.481: Due to their hot finish, Houston has home field in the ALCS, but that may not be the advantage you think it is for them. This season, the Astros were the only playoff team to have a record below .500 at home this season

.667: When looking at ALCS history, the Rangers and Astros are two of the best to play in it. As a matter of fact, Texas' .667 win percentage is the best among all teams with a minimum of 10 games played.

1: This is the first postseason meeting between the two franchises.

2: Yordan Álvarez and Jose Abreu each had a great start to the postseason, producing the most homers by a duo so far this playoff (7). In fact, their seven home runs are as many as the entire Texas team has so far in the playoffs.

1.313: Astros slugger Yordan Álvarez posted a 1.313 slugging percentage in the ALDS, the fourth-highest mark in a single playoff series in MLB history.

7: Houston is no stranger to being one of the last four teams alive in the playoffs, as this is their seventh consecutive appearance in the ALCS. That improves on the American League record they set last year and is now just one behind the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s, who due to the strike in 1994, made appearances in eight straight NLCS appearances.

8: Despite only playing one game so far at Globe Life Field as a member of the Texas Rangers, Corey Seager owns the most homers in the field with eight. That is, of course, due in part to the 2020 season when the playoff games were held at neutral sites and allowed him to play 16 games there prior to this year.

+20: Texas has outscored their opponents by 20 runs through their first five games in the postseason, which is the second-biggest differential through a team's first five games in a playoff. That trails only the 2019 Yankees, who began with a +22 differential.

23: The Rangers have 23 extra-base hits through five games. That is the most through a team's first five games of a postseason since the 1999 Red Sox had 28 through five games.

35: Since Alex Bregman debuted in the majors in 2017, the Astros have played 35 games in the ALCS. 18 of those games have come at home. Those 18 home games are more than every other team in the American League combined (17) over that span.

106: In a series that doesn't look even by glancing at the seed numbers, it has been a dead heat recently. Since 2010, the Astros and Rangers have played 212 games. Each side has won 106.