sportsjabber.net

The Texas Rangers aren’t a surprise team. They entered the playoffs as the defending American League champs, and they won 96 games during the regular season. It isn’t a surprise that they’re back in the World Series, winning their second straight AL pennant after defeating the Detroit Tigers, 15-5, in Game 6 of the ALCS. What is a surprise, though, is how they’ve done it.

The Texas Rangers are going to the World Series. After 172 games, they’re the one team out of 14 in the American League that is still playing. Yet in ten playoff games, the Rangers haven’t had a starting pitcher pitch into the seventh inning. Only twice have they had a starter record an out in the sixth inning.

The offense helped, for sure, but they weren’t an unstoppable juggernaut – before Saturday night’s explosion, the Rangers had averaged 4.4 runs in their nine playoff games. So they had an okay offensive showing and a starting staff that couldn’t make it into the late innings.

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2011/10/15/2493037/texas-rangers-ALCS-world-series-pennant