Texas Rangers outlast Houston Astros, take 2-0 ALCS lead - ESPN

HOUSTON — You hear it so often at playoff time that the words take on the form of the cliche: The team that wins the big moments, wins in the postseason.

For two games over two nights in the ALCS, and for seven games since the playoffs began, the Texas Rangers have won just about all the big moments that have come their way this October.

Texas was at it again on Monday, winning a nail-biting 5-4 decision in Game 2 at Minute Maid Park that puts the Houston Astros in the kind of postseason hole they've rarely been in during their seven-season run of October dominance.

«I think that's what makes baseball special,» said Rangers catcher Jonah Heim, who clanged homer in Game 2 off a metallic sign above the Crawford Boxes at Minute Maid Park. «You never know who's going to win the big moment.»

While the Rangers haven't faced this kind of pressure cooker as a group before, a number of their key performers have been there/done that during their careers. One of those seasoned standouts is Texas Game 2 starter Nathan Eovaldi, who won his seventh career playoff game on Monday.

Texas gave Eovaldi an early margin to work with, jumping on Houston starter Framber Valdez for four runs in the first and chasing the lefty after 2 2/3 innings. Texas built a 5-1 lead before Houston started chipping away.

Eovaldi wavered at times, giving up solo homers to Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman. The game appeared to be on the verge of flipping Houston's way in the fifth, when Michael Brantley and Chase McCormick singled. Josh Jung, who otherwise put up a highlight reel performance in the field at third base, misplayed a slow Jeremy Pena grounder loading the bases.

Bases jammed, no one out, the Rangers clinging to a 5-2 lead. These are the moments the