Rangers push AL-best Orioles to brink of elimination with Game 2 win

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Mitch Garver hit a third-inning grand slam and the Texas Rangers won their fourth consecutive game to start this postseason, pushing the Baltimore Orioles to the brink of elimination with an 11-8 victory in Game 2 of the AL Division Series on Sunday.

The wild-card Rangers have outscored the Orioles and Tampa Bay — the top two teams in the American League in the regular season — by 25-11. Bruce Bochy moved within one win of his first AL Championship Series as a manager. He reached that round four times in the National League, winning three World Series titles with San Francisco.

Gunnar Henderson and Aaron Hicks homered for the AL East champion Orioles, who haven't been swept in a series of at least two games since May 2022. They're now in danger of doing that at a most inopportune time.

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Texas Rangers' Mitch Garver drops his bat after hitting a grand slam during the third inning in Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023, in Baltimore.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Hicks drove in five runs, including a three-run shot with one out in the ninth that brought the Orioles within three runs for the first time since before Garver's grand slam. But it was too little, too late.

Texas fell behind for the first time this postseason when the Orioles scored two runs in the first, but the Rangers answered with five in the second to knock out rookie Grayson Rodriguez. Garver, a backup catcher who hadn't played yet in the 2023 playoffs, hit his grand slam for a 9-2 lead.

Garver came up again with the bases loaded in the fifth but hit