The 2023 American League Championship Series was a best-of-seven playoff between the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers for the American League (AL) pennant and the right to play in the 2023 World Series. The Rangers won the series four games to three. The visiting team won every game in the series, making this the third such occurrence in North American professional sports (second without neutral site) after the 2019 World Series (also featuring the Astros) and 2020 NBA Eastern Conference semi-finals between Toronto and Boston, although the latter series was played entirely at a single neutral site with no fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The series began on October 15 and Game 7 was played on October 23. Fox and FS1 televised all games in the United States. It was the first-ever postseason meeting between the intra-state rivals, and the first LCS for either league to be played entirely within one state (apart from the neutral-site matchups of the 2020 postseason, which were necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic).
Following the eliminations of division winners the Baltimore Orioles (AL East), Minnesota Twins (AL Central), Los Angeles Dodgers (NL West), and Atlanta Braves (NL East) in the Division Series and Milwaukee Brewers (NL Central) in the Wild Card Series, the Astros (AL West) were the only division winner to reach the League Championship Series in 2023.
Background
Both the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers qualified for the postseason and finished the regular season 90–72, but the Astros won American League West for the third consecutive season, the sixth title in seven years, and a first-round bye as the second seed, all on the final day of the season by winning the head-to-head tiebreaker 9–4 while the Rangers entered as the fifth seed wild card entrant as second place in the American League West division despite leading the division most of the season.
For the Rangers, they swept the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card Series; and in the Division Series, they swept the American League East division winner Baltimore Orioles to reach the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2011. The Houston Astros, meanwhile, defeated the American League Central division winner Minnesota Twins in four games in the Division Series for their seventh consecutive appearance in the ALCS, an American League record.
This series will be the first postseason meeting between the Astros and the Rangers, a rivalry known as the Lone Star Series, the first LCS to feature two teams from the same state, and the first ALCS not to feature a team from the AL East since 2011. This is also the first LCS matchup between two teams from the same division since 2011.
During the regular season, the Astros won nine of 13 head-to-head meetings with the Rangers and out-scored them 93–74 in those contests. While both teams had 90–72 records, the Rangers had the superior run differential (plus-165 to Houston's plus-129).
In addition, the mayors of Houston and Arlington made a friendly wager that whichever mayor’s team lost the series would have to wear a jersey from the winning team to a city council meeting. After the Astros lost the series, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner honored the wager and indeed wore a Rangers jersey to a city council meeting.
Matchup
Texas Rangers vs Houston Astros
Game summaries
This was the first postseason meeting between Texas and Houston.
Game 1
Game 1 was a pitching duel between Houston ace Justin Verlander and Texas' Jordan Montgomery. Jonah Heim's single opened up the scoring as he plated Evan Carter to give the Rangers a 1–0 lead against Astros starter, Justin Verlander. After walking Leody Taveras, Verlander escaped the bases-loaded jam when Marcus Semien popped out. In the fourth, Montgomery struck out Martin Maldonado to escape a bases-loaded jam and preserve the one-run lead. In the fifth, the Rangers extended their lead to 2–0 due to a solo home run by Taveras. After Montgomery's stellar start of 6 innings, the trio of Josh Sborz, Aroldis Chapman, and José Leclerc kept the Astros off the board to take the first game of the best-of-seven series.