Adolis Garcia homered twice and drove in five runs to set an MLB post-season record for RBIs in a series, and the Texas Rangers rolled to an 11-4 victory over the rival Houston Astros in Monday's Game 7 of the American League Championship Series to secure their first World Series appearance since 2011.
Garcia went 4 for 5 to cap a sensational ALCS in which he amassed 15 RBIs, the most by any player in a play-off series in MLB history. The Cuban slugger homered in each of the final four games and was an obvious choice for series MVP.
Corey Seager and Nathaniel Lowe also homered and rookie Evan Carter had a two-run double for Texas, which won Games 6 and 7 in Houston to improve to 8-0 on the road in these playoffs, tying an MLB record for consecutive away wins to begin a single post-season set by the 1996 New York Yankees.
Rangers skipper Bruce Bochy made history as well by becoming the first manager to win a League Championship Series with three different teams. The 68-year-old previously guided the San Francisco Giants to World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014 and led the San Diego Padres to the 1998 Fall Classic.
He'll now try to end the Rangers' 61-year drought without a World Series title, the longest of the six current MLB franchises that have never won one. Texas lost to Bochy's Giants in the 2010 World Series and to the St. Louis Cardinals the following year in their lone other previous appearance.
The defending World Series champion Astros were bidding to become the first team to win three consecutive league pennants since the Yankees did so in four straight seasons from 1998-2001.
They fell behind early, however, as Texas scored three times off Cristian Javier in the first inning.
Seager started the scoring with a one-out homer and Carter singled and stole second before coming home on Garcia's base hit for a quick 2-0 lead. Garcia then stole second and came around on a single by Mitch Garver.
Javier was pulled after recording just one out and allowing three runs on four hits. The right-hander entered Game 7 with a 1.69 ERA while winning both of his two previous starts in this post-season.
The Astros got a run back in the bottom of the first when Jose Altuve doubled off Max Scherzer and later scored on Jose Abreu's single, but Garcia's first homer of the night restored Texas' three-run advantage in the third.
Alex Bregman got Houston back within two with a solo homer off Scherzer in the bottom of the third, but the Rangers scored four times off J.P. France in the fourth to break the game open.
After loading the bases with one out on two singles and a walk, Carter doubled to right to bring in two runs and Garcia drove in two more with a single that pushed the lead to 8-2.
Scherzer permitted two runs in 2 2/3 innings before being removed in favour of Jordan Montgomery, who tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn his second win of the ALCS.
Lowe's two-run homer in the sixth stretched Texas' lead to 10-2. The Astros got a run back on Yordan Alvarez's RBI single in the seventh before Garcia went deep again in the eighth for the Rangers' final run.